Lights Out and Shoot Up The Station
by swisstony
Summary: Set some time after an imagined series 6, the Mallrats have finally found paradise on their own island. A letter, and the future generation however will throw paradise into turmoil. Warning for OC's and future swears. Not sure if this will graduate past chapter 1, I hope you enjoy it anyway.
1. Once around the moon

The first letter arrived.

And it didn't change anything, immediately.

It was from a woman, somewhere on the mainland desperately asking for information on her sister, last seen in the company of a tribe called the Mallrats.

And it had passed through many hands, until it had eventually found it's way onto Alice's ferry, and their island.

The description was vague, just an estimated age, the woman had managed to calculate if her sister had lived, thirty-five.

That age alone singled out only a handful of the female population of the Mallrats, and even within that grouping Tai-san, Salene and Ruby had been only children, and May had claimed to only half remember a younger brother.

The letter lingered longest with Amber, and oddly Ebony.

But eventually even they forgot about it.

How exactly it had ended up in Jack's possession he couldn't remember, but why he'd replied was a simpler question to answer.

Living on the Mallrat's island home had never really clicked for him, he'd been a City boy at heart.

His role within the group, had slowly been swallowed up by Ram, leaving Jack just a tinkerer reporting to a genius.

The real shift had taken place about five years previous to the arrival of the letter, when he'd asked Ellie to marry him and she'd unexpectedly turned him down.

He'd only asked her, because after so many years of watching their friends doing the same thing, and having families, Jack had thought he probably should, that it was what she might have wanted.

It was after Ellie's refusal he'd realised he hadn't loved her any more, not the way he had.

The odd thing was, he'd known it was the same for her, they just played the parts that had been assigned them so many decades earlier.

She was brilliant though, a force of nature, Ellie had carved her niche and followed her dream, becoming the reporter on Ram's island broadcast system.

Jack had been proud of her, he'd only wished Ellie could have felt the same way about him.

His own reply to the letter had written itself one day when boredom had gotten the better of him.

_To who it may concern,_

_Your letter has reached us._

_Need more information on your sister, no match here as of yet._

_Perhaps more details about you may aid our search._

_I hope you find what you're looking for._

At the end of his own brief note, Jack had made the odd decision to sign off with KC's name.

KC who had never been within a metre of a writing implement, to the best of Jack's knowledge.

When the second letter had appeared, less than a week later, this time it had been addressed to KC. Jack had skilfully managed to intercept it before the spiky haired deputy had, had the chance to ponder of it's contents.

_Dear KC,_

_Thank you for your note._

_The problem is..._

The woman didn't remember much, over the course of the side and a half of rumpled paper, she revealed that she had been in some sort of plane crash, Jack guessed that she must have, at one time been a prisoner of the Techno's, going down in one of their airships.

Her memory was affected, leaving her with only bits and pieces of her former life, for instance the knowledge of a sister, and a photograph of the pair.

On the mainland the woman lived a somewhat isolated life as a teacher, and when Jack had penned his reply, he transformed himself from minor mechanic and inventor, into deputy Sheriff, and all round _man of action_.

She signed off with the name _Solange._

The more letters he sent, the more he received back from Solange.

Each always addressed to KC.

Jack had always enjoyed the power that came with knowing something other people didn't, he relished it, and over time he began to fall in-love with the new version of himself he'd written into his letters.

And then, after a flurry of correspondents the day finally came, when Solange had asked to meet KC.

The day Jack had dreaded.

_In two weeks, I'll be at the tribal gathering, and I'd really like to see you. I can show you the picture of my sister in person. Let me know, which dock your ferry visits, and I will be there. I'll wear a white flower in my hair so you'll be able to recognise me._

He couldn't go, he could never actually meet her.

For a start he wasn't KC, and secondly there'd been his relationship with Ellie to think about.

Jack couldn't just wander off, and spend the day with a woman he'd been writing to in secret for weeks without it seeming considerably odd.

Besides he'd have to get past Alice first.

He'd been considering it though, strongly, desperately.

Jack liked Solange, she'd been sweet, vulnerable, funny and clever.

Actually a lot like Ellie before they'd both grown up.

It was over hearing one of Lex's drunken diatribes one night in Ruby's Saloon, that first put the solution into Jack's head.

He'd send KC to meet Solange.

KC who never fully recovered after the sudden death of Gel.

For once in his life Lex had been right, the deputy Sheriff had needed to be healed, and Jack was certain if anyone could do it, it would be Solange.

Before putting his plan into action Jack decided to run it past another human being first.

The first and only person he'd thought that may have been able to understand this madness was Salene, who'd sat in silence on the edge of the bed he shared with Ellie, while he poured out his heart.

"_That's insane." _She'd responded, finally.

"_Why. It's the perfect solution."_

"_But Jack, are you seriously telling me that you're going to be able to sit back and watch as KC lives out your life?" _Salene had countered.

"_My life, I don't understand. It's not my life, I was only pretending to be KC."_

She'd looked genuinely pained.

"_Jack, don't you think this is all a little odd, even for you."_

He hadn't been sure how to take that.

"_I mean, you've been writing to this girl for who knows how long. Don't you think there might be something more to all this than you're admitting to yourself. You need to talk to Ellie."_

"_No, she'd never understand!" _He'd admitted.

"_I don't understand. But, I do think that this wrong, wrong to KC, and that poor girl, and Ellie, and you. Jack if you're this unhappy with your life, you really need to do something about it."_

After that Jack didn't mention the idea to Salene again, nor had he listened to her.

Jack had been sure he was right.

_I'll meet you on the pier, and look out for you're white flower._

_Love_

_KC_


	2. Our day will come

"Bad news?" She hears the familiar arched tone of voice behind her.

She stares at the blank void of screen, black an unending.

He moves and she catches sight of his reflection, that shock of bleached hair.

"Ram's recalling me to the City." She answers, keeping the shudder of her voice in check.

She can already feel him, those gloves tracing their way up her spine, making her wish she'd just died.

"That's too bad." She closes her eyes, listening as he speaks, desperately trying to catch any trace of concern or regret, there's nothing.

"I thought he was pleased, with our work here." Her question floats between them, he can't answer her.

She slaps the lid back down on the laptop.

"We've all had our orders." He says after a beat.

Intrigued she's spins in her chair to face him.

Ved grins down at her, arms folded across his chest, his expression is forever fixed in that deviantly confident smirk.

"I thought that would interest you." His right eyebrow raises slightly as he speaks.

"I'm for the City as well, and so is Jay, as personal guards to your _beloved_ husband. I don't think he's entirely convinced by the job your sister are doing."

Silence suddenly falls between the pair, the only sound that can be heard is the low hum of the fan above their heads, as it cuts through the heavy air.

"Don't...call _him _that, _please_." She finds herself suddenly saying.

Ved moves quickly across the room closing the door, blocking out the sound of so many heavy boots.

And then he's there kneeling in front of her, the cocky well rehearsed confidence fleeing from his face.

"_Solange_, please don't cry." Ved begs her desperately, tangling her small numb fingers within his own.

"I _can't_," Solange's voice gives way completely as a torrent of bitter tears begin to flow.

Ved's hands find their way to the side of her face, Solange feels his thumbs as they work across her cheeks in a vain attempt to wipe her tears away.

"It will be alright." He soothes her softly, nuzzling his lips against the damp flesh of her pointed chin.

"How!"

"We'll find away to see each other, debriefings, meetings, I'll be there in the City with you."

The anger wells up inside of her.

"I don't want to have to sit at a desk across from you any more! I'm tired of all the pretending, I love you Ved!" From the minute those final three words leave her mouth, she sees something catch in the corner of his eye, a shadow, and then it's gone replaced with his lips and tongue.

She finds herself smiling against the familiarity of his skin.

"We could leave." He says, as they part breathlessly.

"Ram would have us both deleted."

Deleted, the word which both of them knew meant imprisonment, slavery, and working until you died on your feet.

"Not you, he'd never risk breaking up his _collection_." Ved sounds almost jealous.

Solange pushes that thought wilfully to the back of her mind.

"I'm only the half sister, once Ram has Ebony, I'll be surplus to requirements. Just another General, in the great Techno army."

Ved pulls away from her, and she watches as he gets up from his knees. His forehead knots into a tight frown as he begins to stalk back and forth across the small room.

They've been here before, with plans and promises, but when it comes, always, the truth is that there's noway out for either of them, not together at least.

"He's got to get that sister of yours first, from everything you've told me about that Ebony, she'll take some wrangling."

She has to stop this now.

"When are you leaving?" Solange asks.

He stops mid step, and blinking back at her.

"In two days." His response is muted, defeat settling upon him.

"I'm flying out tomorrow." She replies, adjusting herself eternally attempting to address him as her subordinate.

"I'll have to look forward to you welcoming me _personally _into the City, _General_."

It's easy to slip back into character, she doesn't even have to force herself to roll her eyes at his weak _double entendre._

"That will be all, Ved."

"_That will be all, Ved."_

"Turn it off." Ram orders, and Jay watches in silence as the image of his younger brother fades.

His mind begins to race as he struggles to think of a way out.

He sees Ram, his back to the webcam slumped forward, flanked by a triumphant looking Java, and concerned Siva.

"It's just as I told you." Java coos.

Jay finds Siva's eye, and the pair share a look, the same look, total fear and utter resignation.

He steps forward taking a shallow breath.

"Lord Ram," Jay begins, with no idea where the next word will take him, the sentence seems to form by itself on his tongue.

"I ask for clemency for my brother. He's weak, and young, I don't believe his intention was ever to harm you. Please give him a second chance to prove himself, and rebuild your trust."

Jay knows it's his fault, that he is the one whose taken his eye off the ball, this isn't the first time Ved has fallen into an inappropriate relationship with a member of the opposite sex, and he fears it won't be the last. His excuses for his brother are weak, considering their own relative ages, youth no longer holds the currency it once did, but what else could he say.

Ram waves one gloved hand weakly, and Jay feels relief begin to wash over him.

"When she arrives I'll talk to Solange, I'll make her understand the mistake she's made." Siva quickly jumps in, evidently attempting to capitalise on Ram's forgiveness.

"No!"

Siva jumps slightly taken aback by her husband's response.

"Do you want to have her deleted, Lord Ram?" The note in Java's voice is deliberate and calculated.

She's planned this, separating her younger sister from Ram and the guidance of Siva, pushing Ved and Solange together.

Perhaps she'd hoped it would be him, who would slip and fall into her younger sister's arms.

"Java, no!" The veil is lifted from Siva's eyes, and it seems that Ram is the only one oblivious to the plotting of his head wife.

Jay strains his ears to listen, he catches Ram's words, and tries to translate them, only catching half-a-dozen.

_That would take too long. _

"I want her to die!"

Even Java seems to bulk at the idea, her eyes widening slightly, betraying her suprise.

"Ram, please...no!" Siva begs.

Solange had made Ram laugh, in the way that Java couldn't, and Siva wouldn't. He'd begun to show a partial favouritism towards the younger sibling, Jay had noticed it.

"She's only fifteen, she's just a kid!"

Java holds Siva back, silencing her with whitening knuckles.

"Jay, you will change the crew list for Solange's flight tomorrow. I want all Techno's who you believe to have wavering loyalty, and the remaining prisoners marked for deletion on that plane."

The brief respite of relief at managing to save his brother is washed away, nausea and the sinking knowledge that he is being ordered to be complicit in the deaths of so many hits Jay suddenly.

He's never killed anyone, he's not sure if he ever could.

"Lord Ram,"

"Ved's an excellent pilot isn't he, and every plane, even those not indented for flight need a good pilot."

And then came the threat, and Jay was powerless in the face of it, unable to sacrifice the life of his brother.

What good would refusing do? Ram would only load Ved into the plane, and transfer the task of executioner to Mega.

"Yes, Lord Ram."

Jay feels a part of himself die in that moment.

Jay tries to distract himself.

He notices how blades of grass have begun to spring up through the cracked, and faded tarmac of the runway.

The sky is blue, cloudless, the breeze is warm, perfect conditions for flying.

Something tightens around his chest.

Desperately Jay tries not to notice the object in the corner of his eye.

"You're quiet today." Ved is next to him chattering away, with no idea of how close he has come to death.

Jay envies him.

Solange appears, followed by Mega.

Jay never noticed before how small she is, or how young she really looks.

Fifteen is too young to die.

She stops in front of them, and Jay finds himself wishing that she would just keep moving, just get on that plane, and fly out of his sight.

"Captain Jay," Solange greets him with a nod, he can't force himself to meet her eye.

"Captain Ved." He catches his brother's smile, and wonders how he'd missed it for so long.

"I will commend your excellent service to me to Lord Ram, and ask that he considers you both for promotion."

"Thank you, _General_." The way Ved's voice lingers on the _General_ reminds Jay of the conversation he witnessed the previous day.

"Thank you." He whispers softly.

Solange moves past them, and Jay feels as if he can breath again.

Mega makes a move to follow her, but Jay catches him.

"Mega, you are to stay with us. Paul is replacing you." He feel the weight of Ved and Mega's stares, and he remembers how to lie.

"I didn't receive any new orders," Mega begins, Jay quickly cuts him off.

"But I did, from Ram last night. The other three planes still need to be serviced, since this one has already been done, you're to stay behind and oversee the procedure, and then fly to the City with Ved and myself."

He thinks they believe him.

Solange doesn't pause, and he hears the sound of her boots as she races up the stairs towards her fate.

He concentrates on the grass, and feeling the sun burning down across his face.

The engines roar into life, propellers spinning.

He closes his eyes, and knows he's a damned man.


	3. Video killed the radio star

Ruby's morning started the way it usually did, being rudely awaken by a lump thudding down on the mattress next to her.

"I was trying to sleep." She frowned, opening one eye.

"Hhhump." Came a grunted reply.

Tangled in the warmth of so many bed sheets, she twists awkwardly to stare at the form lying next to her.

Occasionally, no to be honest, more than occasionally, Ruby finds herself wondering _how_ exactly she ended up being married to Ram.

It was one of those gradual things, like a cold sore or a deadly virus, that you don't really notice sneaking up on you until one day its either staring back at you in the mirror from your top lip, or you've gone and died.

Ruby is well aware that most people assume she either married him for the power, or that she'd gone completely mad after being dumped for Ebony.

Neither of these things are true.

For a start Ram doesn't actually have any power, he's never had any, not since she's known him, at least. He's never been able to scrabble back into the position he'd once held over the Technos.

He's even, along with Ebony denied a vote in any official island business.

But that's alright, because on their side of the island, outside of the Mallrats' beach huts, in New Liberty, they sort of do what they want anyway.

Slade's always mayor without election, Ebony's usually casually abusing someone, her Saloon enjoys maximum occupancy every night, and Ram delights in tormenting the Mallrats with electricity cuts, which never seem to effect New Liberty.

And secondly, Ruby had regrettably experienced the emotion of being dumped before.

It was her love of reading that had began Ruby's slow metamorphosis from viewing Ram as a murderous war criminal, into something a little more human.

One day he'd just given her a book, and not just any book, her favourite book _The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley. _At the time she hadn't been sure where he'd managed to find it, since they'd all just washed up on a completely deserted, and more importantly book-less island, but there it had been, and it still sat on one of her many shelves.

Ruby had read it as if it had been the first time, and when she'd finished Ram had asked her to tell him what it had been about.

All that virtual reality, and lateral thinking had clearly rotted away his imagination.

So she had, pausing every now and then for one of his questions, never entirely certain that Ram would fully understand the moral at the heart of the story.

When things had reached their lowest ebb on the island, no shelter, entertainment, little food and water, Amber had approached Ruby and asked if she would read to the group.

Night after night, the small group had huddled around a roaring fire, and listened to the adventures of _Tom _and _Ellie _and the faeries _Doasyouwouldbedoneby _and _Bedonebyasyoudid, _Ruby was still convinced it had gone a long way to break up the boredom, and save what little sanity had remained.

And then there had been Lottie.

Always somewhat overly maternal, Ruby had begun to hear the slow tick of her biological clock from her late teens onwards. Mothering was something she enjoyed, and she regarded Lottie as her adopted daughter from the second week she'd arrived in Liberty.

So it had helped that Lottie had rather rebelled against the trend and actually liked Ram.

The three of them fell in together, and Ram had ended up helping her look after the little girl.

So those had been the rather rocky, unsubstantial foundations that have led Ruby to being unceremoniously awoken at 6 o'clock in the morning, every morning for the last fifteen years.

"Problems, with IslandNet, again?" She enquires, smiling slightly as Ram raises up one tired thumb in response.

He's not very good at naming things, when their son was born Ruby been half afraid Ram would want to call him..._Ram II, this time it's personal..._

In the end she chose _Theo._

Playing her trump card of having been in labour with their child for over thirty-six hours.

An experience, which had been enough for Ruby to decide never to repeat it, again.

"Have you ever thought of maybe, just switching it off and on again?"

Even in the gloom of the early morning light, Ruby catches sight of a flash of Ram's eyeball.

"You're perverse." He mumbles against the fabric of his pillow.

She chortles, before adding. "Take you're boots off the bed."

"None of my other wives every treated me like this." Ram complains.

"You should be thankful, I've never tried to kill you." Ruby reluctantly slips out from under the sheets, finding her dressing gown on the back of a nearby chair, she pulls the fabric over her shoulders.

She makes her way into the en suite bathroom, complete with often _on-the-blink _plumbing, she smiles again at the sound of the bed springs creaking, followed by dull thuds as Ram takes off his boots.

Pushing back the shower curtain, Ruby tugs at the handle on the side of a frighteningly large metal water tank which is meant to release the water, and something she has often considered painting white to fit in with the general colour scheme in the rest of the small tiled room.

Over her head the pipes rumble, hiss, clank, and sound as if they've finally reached the end of their short life.

Cold water cascades across her palm, and after ten minutes of waiting with frozen, and wet fingers the water remains cold.

"Ram!" Riotously indignant Ruby storms back into the bedroom, announcing. "The waters not working!"

"Get Jack to look at it."

No, Ruby definitely didn't marry Ram for the power.

"And then Ruby just came up to me, and asked me to ask you to, fix _their _shower! I mean, who does she think she is? And why couldn't see ask you herself, it's not as if you do anything all day."

Jack is too busy chasing a slab of pineapple across his plate with his fork to really engage with anything Ellie is saying.

"Jack, are you even listening to me?"

He catches that, and replies a little too curtly. "Yes!"

"You probably should fix it though, since Ram is my boss."

He gives up on the pineapple, letting his fork come rest across his plate.

"I do, _do_ things." Jack observes.

"More cider, anyone?" Salene asks awkwardly, reaching across the small square table for the half empty bottle.

May catches her gaze, fixing her with a mischievous grin.

"I'd love some, Sal." Her grin spreads as she offers up her mug for a refill.

"I think you've had enough." Salene warns her partner.

May doesn't respond verbally, unseen she simply rests her bare feet on Salene's lap, knowing how the simple act will annoy her lover.

"You've definitely had enough." Salene adds, wishing she was still young enough to get away with sticking out her tongue.

The four of them are sat in the small space that acts as Salene and May's living room/kitchen, which is decorated with a fake floral garland of fairy lights, and a tatty looking sheepskin rug, the wooden walls of the cosy hut covered in various children's crayon and pencil drawings from the pairs classes at the school.

Over the years it's become a sort of tradition that Salene, Jack, Ellie and May will meet up on what they estimate is a Thursday night, and have dinner.

Salene cooks, because she's the only one who really can with any sort of skill.

"Like what?" Ellie enquires, sounding amused by the idea.

"There goes desert." May observes, licking the back of her spoon.

"May." Salene feels the situation getting away from her fast.

Jack fails to answer, so May does it for him with a knowing smirk.

"Oh, Jack's got another _project_ on the go at the moment."

Jack's head shoots up, and Salene feels the weight of his betrayed stare, now he knows she's told her girlfriend about _Solange. _

She wants to apologies suddenly, but honestly she wishes he'd never chosen her to tell.

Thankfully Ellie seems to miss the arched meaning in May's comment, and she simply frowns.

"Shall I put on the IslandNet?" At this point Salene would gladly open a vein at the table if she thought it would break the tension, it's almost as if she's being suffocated.

"Oh yes, my bulletin should be on about now." Ellie responds gleefully, having never got over the rush that comes with being broadcast to so many.

"What's it about today?" May quizzes, her voice full of hidden barbs.

"The Tribal Gathering." Ellie answers.

"Slow news day, huh?" May chuckles softly, resting her chin against the palm of her hand.


	4. Dream within a dream

The light had been brighter than the sun.

And now darkness, thick, and enveloping, the only sound she hears is the desperate pounding of her own heart.

She is restrained, held down by tight bonds wrapped around her arms and legs.

She wants to scream, to cry out, but into what, _nothingness. _

"_Tai-san." _A voice, suddenly fills all the available space around her.

Tai-san has almost forgotten the sound of her own name.

"_I am about to show you a series of cards, I want you to tell me what is printed on them." _She remembers that slow, deliberate tone, and this, the task that she must perform on a daily basis.

A monitor in front of her flickers into life, and she feels the reflection of a white card across her face.

Plain, and white, but still she sees a mountain, the mountain, her mountain.

"A mountain." Tai-san responds, her tongue filling heavy and under used inside her own mouth.

The voice never confirms or denies her guesses.

Another card, the same but different, this time she knows the image of a turtle is printed on the other, unseen side.

_A heart..._

_Some flowers..._

_An empty chair_ …

"_It's a trick." _Another voice fills her head, a woman's voice, oddly familiar it sounds like...

"Ebony!" Tai-san calls, tugging desperately against her constraints.

"Ebony, it's me Tai-san, _please, please _help me!" She begs, hot terrified tears pouring down the sides of her face.

"There is no-one here by that name." The male voice chimes back in.

"Ebony!" Tai-san screams.

"Shut her up, Mega." She hears the woman warn in the background.

"Java, it's not her fault if she thinks you sound like your sister." Mega soothes.

_Sister..._

Tai-san can't think, her head feels fuzzy, disconnected from the rest of her body.

"_Please." _She whispers weakly.

"That's enough for today, you've done a good job Tai-san."

The weight presses down against her chest, gasping for breath Tai-san sits up in her bed.

She can't breath, she can't...

Her head feels as if it's about to explode, and then...

And then the real world floods back in on her, the sound of Lex's undistributed snores next to her, mixing with the outside world of the cicadas, and the always rolling waves.

_This is real..._

Tai-san climbs out of the bed, she doesn't know where she's going, she lets her feet decide.

In less than a beat she's outside the confines of her home, marching across the still sun warm sand of the beach.

"_Amber!" _Tai-san hammers against the rough wooden door of Amber and Jay's hut.

"_Amber!" _She calls again, this time rewarded by the flash of a torch passing through one of the windows.

The door nudges grudgingly open, Amber's tired face appearing.

"Tai-san it's the middle of the night," She yawns.

"I know, but I had to see you, I've had a dream, _another one_." Tai-san watches as Amber's face alters from sleep deprived, to concerned.

She turns behind her for a moment. "Bray, take your brother back to bed."

A moment later Amber turns back to her.

"You better come in."


	5. Golden Haze

He rests on his elbow, staring down at what he humbly considers to be the most beautiful girl in the whole tribe.

She gazes past him with a smile, observing... "Isn't that your Mother?"

Alex raises his head, following her eyeline, he catches sight of the familiar outline of his Mother loitering in the shade of Amber and Jay's doorway, a torch flashes and then she quickly swallowed up inside the hut.

"Aren't you concerned?" The girl underneath him asks, with an amused quirk of her eyebrow.

Alex lets himself think about her question for a moment, no he isn't is his internal answer. He knows his parents well enough to know that his Father would be storming around the island, raising hell, and keeping everyone else from their beds if something, anything was really wrong.

"I'll just ask Bray, at school tomorrow." He watches as she winces at the mention of _school. _

"I keep forgetting you're still at school." Brady admits bashfully, raising herself up slightly, she smooths down the fabric of her long skirt.

"Only just." Alex reminds her, glancing briefly at the knickers, which hand around her ankles.

Brady flashes him a sidelong look, and his heart beats awkwardly.

"Have you thought any more about what you're going to do, when you finish?"

Rolling onto his back, Alex's rests one arm behind his head, he lets the finger of his other idle hand come to rest against his tongue, he tastes Brady's tang.

Stretched out above them is another carpet of stars, in a flawless night's sky.

"I use to dream about that sky." Brady says softly, as she rests next to him, shifting onto her side.

Alex considers asking her if she ever dreamed about him in the long period of time she'd been away, but he'd only been thirteen when she'd left the island for the first time.

At the age of eighteen, Brady had loaded up most of her possessions into a backpack, stolen the only other boat on the island and set sail for destinations unknown.

In her note to Trudy, which her Mother had helpfully read aloud to anyone who would stop long enough to listen, Brady had listed '..._wanting to know, what was on the other side of the ocean...' _as her main motivation for leaving.

When she returned fifteen months later it had been with a bag full of _Polaroids, _a tan, and a curly haired toddler called Mia.

Brady still stubbornly refused to confirm of deny if Mia was actually her child, however Alex held the suspicion that she wasn't.

"I want to be a mid-wife, a male one, _obviously_." Repeating his long held ambition out into the wider world once again, reminded Alex of the several shades of red, and then purple, his Father had turned when he'd first announced his decision.

"I bet Lex, loved that." Brady snorts.

Alex doesn't bother to respond, he's completely at peace with the knowledge that he's not the version of the son his Father ever hoped for, but that's alright because his sister Violet is. She can out drink, out fight, out spit, and swear, anyone on the island, she terrifies most of the boys in their class.

Alex turns his head, the tips of their noses meet, she exhales, and he feels the warm heat of her breath across his face.

Her wide blue eyes blink back at him.

The late night, early morning chill catches a ringlet of her long golden hair, sending a strand cascading across her freckled cheek.

Brady reaches for his hand, catching his fingers.

"Would you, come travelling with me?" Alex is surprised by the sound of his own question.

He hears Brady laugh.

His face must betray him, because her laughter quickly fades, replaced with a sweet smile.

"In a few years, you won't remember ever asking me that." One of the things Alex likes most about Brady is her honesty, sometimes brutal, but always truthful, she doesn't make any space for artifice in her world.

He knows that's not true.

Silently he stares, transfixed at the shadow of their linked hands against the sky.

As if reading his mind Brady says...

"Don't make this any more than it is. We have fun, don't we?"

_Fun, _Alex sits up suddenly, reaching for his for the worn tan leather of his satchel, from the insides he pulls a battered looking metal flask.

"What's that?" Brady enquires intrigued.

Resting the warm flask between his legs Alex slips off the cap, pouring the steaming liquid into the top, her passes it to Brady.

Sniffing rather cautiously at the potent brew, she arches on eyebrow asking...

"Nutmeg tea?" Her face contorts into a slightly confused frown.

Alex smiles.

"You know," He's certain that she doesn't. Deftly he slips the cap out of her grasp, taking a long sip of the dark, fragrant liquid.

"...if you brew up enough nutmeg, it can act as a hallucinogen."

Her eyes widen slightly, it doesn't take her long to catch his drift.

"No, I didn't." She admits.

Refilling the cap, he holds it out for her. Gleefully Brady accepts it with a rueful grin.


	6. This Charming Man

Lost between the pages of her book, Ruby only half hears the question.

"What is it, this week?" Glancing up over the pages, she sees Slade propping up the bar in front of her.

Ruby smirks, angling the spine.

"_Jane Austen," _Slade observes with marked amusement. "Are you going to start parading around New Liberty in a bonnet, drink tea?"

She rolls her eyes, with an indulgent chortle.

"It's a good book. For a start, I've already learned, that _'it is a_ _truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' _Ruby concludes rather triumphantly, impressed by her own apparent powers of memory.

Slade seems to take on-board her comment for a moment, before saying.

"I did not know that, but maybe that's why, I've never been married." His face creases into a teasing grin.

Ruby studies him in silence for a moment, the combination of time and Ebony haven't been kind to him. His features, which were never conventional enough to be classed as handsome are weather beaten, the lines across his forehead, and around his mouth are deep.

Slade casts a look behind him, calling... "Estelle!"

The girl appears reluctantly next to him, in an ever present haze of floral perfume, feathers, and glittery hair clips. Her hair frames her pretty face in a messy tangle of caramel afro curls. She's the antithesis of her Mother Ebony. Pampered, and adored by her Father.

"Morning, Estelle." Ruby acknowledges the girl, having always felt more than a little sorry for the young girl. Ebony has never been what anyone would ever class as 'parenting' or even 'human' material, it's always fallen to Slade to make-up for the maternal shortcomings of his partner.

"Bonjour Madame, Ruby." Estelle greets Ruby with a wave of precocious confidence.

Her French rusty from secondary school, Ruby is unsure exactly how to reply, so instead she simply asks "French now, what happened to the Spanish?"

Slade proudly wraps one arm around his daughter's narrow shoulders.

"We learned almost everything there was to know about Spanish, a long time ago, didn't we _Princess_? Now it's all about the French." Slade informs, Ruby hasn't failed to notice how he puffs out whenever discussing his children.

"Oui." Estelle nods emphatically in agreement.

"I think, I might have liked to see Paris." Ruby admits wistfully, deciding against better her judgement to open up her internal box marked _things I wish I'd done. _

"I will!" Estelle announces excitedly, one long pink nail trailing along the scared surface of the bar. Slade looks less than delighted by the prospect of his only daughter braving the wilds of the world outside the protective bubble of their island home.

"Well, good for you. I wish I'd been a bit more focused, when I was you're age." Ruby abandons the faded pages of her book for a nearby tea towel, beginning the task of rubbing down the bar from the spillages of the previous night.

There's probably more to life than this, and she had once been a girl with ambition that had extended past owning her own Saloon, but Ruby had stopped being a child, a girl the moment the virus had claimed her parents. Survival had been a preoccupation for so long, that she now revelled in the simple pleasures that went hand-in-hand with a settled life.

"So, what can I do for you two, _anyway_?" Ruby queries, with one half of her brain already considering the lunch special for the day, and if she really could squeeze a third day out of her crab cakes.

"I've come to see, Ram." Slade says, eyeing his daughter briefly.

"Of course, I can't remember the last time I had a visitor who didn't show up for my booze, or my husband." She laments cheerfully, knowing what a motivator guilt has always been to the man in front of her. Ruby watches his eyes roll.

"Ram's out the back having breakfast, there's a fresh pot of coffee on the stove." She gives in reluctantly, taken aback as Slade hops over the bar, joining her on the other side.

"_Daddy!" _Estelle exclaims with delight.

Slade is all slightly breathless smiles.

"Now, what was the need for that?" Ruby says experted, one hand on her hip.

"Fun." Slade shrugs, planting a quick peck on the side of her cheek.

Ruby turns to Estelle... "Before you get any ideas, and start flinging yourself across the room, there's a door there." She points a the small varnished piece of driftwood separating Ruby's side of the bar, from basically Lex and KC.

"No Princess, you stay with Ruby, me and Ram have got a couple of things to discuss, it won't take long."

The expression that runs briefly over the girl's face is one Ruby recognises a little too well, a potent mixture of loneliness, and the bitter sting of rejection. She can't help but pity the kid.

"Alright, Daddy."

Apparently satisfied, Slade pushes through the beaded curtains into the Saloon's kitchen.

"You know your brother stayed over here last night, with Theo." Ruby informs the girl softly.

"Why don't you go upstairs, and see what the boys are up to?" Her comment is greeted by a look of surprise.

"That would be, okay?"

"Of course, Theo's is the third door on the left."

On her way up the stairs, Estelle pauses briefly catching the sound of her name, and her Father's voice floating up from the floor beneath her feet.

She bends slightly at the knee straining to hear.

"_...she's clever, really clever, she reminds me of," _Her Father pauses.

"_Well, you know who she reminds me of." _

Estelle doesn't.

"_She just needs someone to push her, to give her a little focus. I can't do it, I don't even know where to start, but you could Ram. All I'm asking, is that you find something for her to do at the television station."_

"_And what does Ebony say about this?"_

Estelle doesn't wait to hear any more, at the mention of her Mother's name she makes short work of the rest of the stairs, at the top she finds a narrow oddly shaped corridor, lined with numerous pictures of flowers in mismatched frames. The repetitive one note gallery ends with a rusty old sign advertising something called _Guinness Time. _

She twists the stiff brass handle of the third door on the left, and is greeted immediately with a terse shout of... "_No Mum go away, we don't want any more food!"_

Pushing the door open, Estelle reveals the sight of her younger brother kneeling on the floor, busily engaged in rolling up his sleeping bag, while Theo slouches across his single bed strumming away on his beloved, dented guitar.

"Oh, that's so sweet, does _Mummy _serve you on a special tray?" She sneers, barging unceremoniously into the room, the door slams pleasingly behind her.

"What are you doing in here?" The lanky, brown haired boy on the bed questions her furiously.

"Your Mum said it was, okay."

Her brother bobs her a cursory glance before turning back to his task at hand.

"Well, it isn't!" Theo spits back at her.

Theo and Violet are the chief antagonists of Estelle's life, and she knows exactly what she's done to offend them both. For instance with Violet it's because Estelle is a girl, a proper one, not a proto-boy. She takes pleasure in all the things that annoy, and enrage Violet, like fashion, and boys.

And Theo hates her, because she's always been the third wheel in his dynamic with her brother.

"Look, I know having a woman who isn't your Mother in your bedroom is a new experience for you, _Theodore, _but try to adjust." Her comment is met with a snort of laughter from her brother, she grins back at him.

"Josh!" Exclaims the boy on the bed, seemingly betrayed by her brother's snigger.

"Well, she's not exactly wrong." Josh concedes with a shrug of his shoulders.

Seizing the advantage of her brother's rare solidarity, Estelle takes a seat on a stool abandoned behind the now closed door.

"Don't get comfortable!" Theo warns her darkly, his eyes narrowing.

Estelle studies the boys in front of her.

Her brother Josh like her is small for his age, and just like her, he also resembles their Mother more than their Father. His skin is dark, his hair short, black and curly. Josh's face is open, kind, and at the moment grinning back at her.

Theo on the other hand is in Estelle's opinion ridiculously tall, all arms and legs, his primary function seems to be continuously slumping on various items of furniture.

"Why, don't you show her the song Theo?" Josh slips his tapped up glasses back onto the bridge of his nose.

Theo's face almost folds in on itself at the suggestion.

Only now does Estelle notice the tangle of scraps of paper littering the bed.

"We found a suitcase washed up on the beach, most of it was useless, old CD's and the like, but at the bottom was this." She smiles slightly at her brother's use of the word _we. _

Leaning up on his knees Josh pulls a piece of paper roughly, from underneath his best friend's leg, handing it to her. Estelle dutifully peers down at the sheet of music.

"This Charming Man by The Smiths, imaginative name." Her tongue trips over the title emblazoned across the top.

"There's a couple of difficult cord changes, it needs a girl on the vocal." Josh leans across her, jabbing at the thick black notes across the page.

She flicks over a couple of the lines, noting..."I think, this song is about gay sex."

Neither boy responds to her comment, and Estelle's large grey eyes run over the various images of sweaty looking boys with guitars, for once she decides to keep her thoughts to herself, plucking at the neon sugar skulls wrapped around her slim wrist.

_I would go out tonight, but I haven't got a stitch to wear._


	7. The Island pt 1

This is the first part of the story of the Mallrats' first night on their island. Part 1 of 2, I hope you enjoy.

**17 Years Earlier.**

The sound of Gel's high pitched scream shocks Amber out of sleep.

Shooting up immediately she catches Ebony's eye across the dying embers of the makeshift camp fire.

Amber quickly looks away reaching protectively for her still sleeping son, tucking him into the crook of her arm.

"We should try, and get everyone back on the boat." Jay whispers cautiously against the side of her head.

She nods silently, as Gel hysterically runs into Salene's waiting arms.

"Gel, what is it? What's wrong?" Salene's questions drift on the warm, balmy night-time breeze towards Amber.

The girl is caught in a flurry of tears, and hiccups.

"It's alright, you're safe now." Salene soothes.

In the shadowy darkness of the crowded beach, other voice begin to emerge as panic slowly creeps into the group.

"Ruby, I'm scared." Lottie exclaims.

Amber is surprised by the voice that replies to the young girl, the fact that it clearly belongs to Ram.

"Don't worry Lottie, nothing is going to happen to _you_." The _you _floats in the air.

Amber watches in silence as the situation starts to escape her, she sees Slade slipping his large red leather jacket from Ebony's narrow shoulders, pulling it roughly back onto his own, as he approaches Salene and Gel.

During the time Amber has spent with him in the cramped conditions of the boat she hasn't failed to notice his calm ability, and the fact that he is more than able to handle the warring temperaments of Lex and Ebony.

Slade is a natural leader, and Amber feels threatened.

"Watch Bray." It sounds like a command even to her own ears.

She places her son into the warm, strong circle of Jay's arms.

Leaving them behind, she quickly pushes her way into the small group that has now gathered around the two girls.

"What was it?" Amber frowns.

"Gel, thinks she saw someone in the jungle." Salene informs, as Gel sobs softly against her chest.

"SHE WHAT!" Amber explodes, the fear overwhelming her for a moment. She struggles to swallow it back down, like everyone else being forced to flee the City, and the boat journey have taken their toll.

"Come on, it's pitch black in there, she's imagining it." Ebony wades in gesticulating wildly towards the direction of the dark, foreboding jungle.

A chill chases its way quickly up Amber's spine, causing her to involuntarily shiver.

"No, Gel asked to borrow the torch, she woke me up to get it from the boat." Jack explains, suddenly appearing next to her, hand-in-hand with Ellie.

"Jack's right, I offered to go with her."

A noise a little like an _eewww, _escapes Gel, at Ellie's shrugged admission.

"I did! I did see a man!" The girl snorts, lifting her head up from Salene, her large glistening eyes caught in the moonlight.

"When I was using the _toilet,_" She chokes out the last word clearly embarrassed by the idea of a normal bodily function.

Amber can't stop herself from rolling her own eyes skyward.

"He was there, just staring at me." Gel finishes her story with an overly distressed combination of a whimper, and chest heave.

"What did he look like?" Slade asks, unlike the others Amber finds it difficult to tell if he believes Gel or not.

"Like them!" Simultaneously Gel points in the directions of Jay, and Ram, her index fingers sharp and accusing.

"Was one of you perving on the kid while she peed?" Ebony's question is directed towards the former leader of the Technos.

"Ram was asleep." Ruby clearly declares, Lottie adding moments later with a giggle "We could hear him snoring."

"No not _them, _like _them!" _The girl repeats again.

"I think Gel, means she saw a Techno." Jack interjects.

The word _Techno _echoes behind Amber, before she has a chance to register what's happening Lex races past her, exploding into the jungle.

"Lex!" The sound of her cry mixes with Slade's.

"Let him burn himself out, chasing around after some imaginary Technos." Ebony councils, her arms folded nonchalantly across her chest.

"If we've strayed into a nest of Techno's, Lex will bring them right to our door." She should have been the one to say it, but it wasn't Amber it was Slade, she sees them all watching him, judging their next moves by his.

Ebony goes quiet.

Breathlessly Amber watches as Slade launches himself into the darkness after Lex, Ebony following close behind.

"Salene, get everyone back on the boat. If it looks like trouble, and we're not back, go without us!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Before she knows what she's doing Amber finds herself plunged into a dense twilight world, the sharp branches and twigs of the jungle assaulting her from every angle.

_What has she done?_

She struggles to run, stretching her arms out in front of her Amber attempts to feel her way through the cold, blackness.

The blood rushes up towards her head, as her heart pounds hard in her ears.

Amber strains to hear past the noises of her own body, catching the sound of Lex's continual shouts.

She knows she has to try, and locate him before Ebony or Slade, fully aware that Ebony's strategy in the situation will be to silence Lex permanently if she can.

Despite their difference over the years, and the fact that Amber would never dare admit this to anyone but herself, she feels something towards Lex, its deviantly not romantic, but at the same time it is a strong bond. They've shared so much, the loss of Bray and Tai-san to the Techno's, Hope Island, and those first terrifying days in the Mall, when she'd been convinced they were all domed.

_Maybe they still are._

The point is Amber isn't about to let Lex meet his end by Ebony's desperate hand.

_Snap._

Behind her she hears movement, her breath catching in her chest, Amber is frozen.

A blast of light suddenly hits her, forcing to half over her eyes with her arm. She loses the power of speech, her tongue hanging limp, and unused inside her mout.

"Amber!" Jack's familiar voice sounds from behind the illumination.

"Jack!"

The light of the torch flickers, and fades, and she clearly hears Jack swearing as he attempts to smack it back into light.

"I told everyone to get back on the boat, what are you doing here?" Amber asks the boy, who's no longer a boy.

The torch stutters back into life.

"Being stuck in a jungle with Ebony and Lex, I thought you might need some help. Or at least someone to even out the odds."

She smiles.

Jack moves forward, and Amber reaches for his hand, giving it a quick, reassuring squeeze.

"Thanks."

In the small pool of artificial light surrounding them, Amber can clearly see Jack's _adams-apple _bob nervously.

She opens her mouth to reassure him, but is cut short by Lex's shout of "Get off me, Ebony!".

"This way, I think."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxx

Even with the aid of the torch Amber, and Jack still find themselves stumbling through and endless maze of twist creepers, and wild weeds.

Unexpectedly the jungle spits them suddenly out onto the other side of the island, in the clearing of grass covered sand dunes, the combined smell of smoke, and death assaults their nostrils.

In front of them lay the twisted, and burned bodies of former Techno guards. Chaos reigns, the outline of a camp still smouldering.

"They killed each other." Slade's observation, causes Amber and Jack to jump.

For a second she lets herself wonder about the best, and worst possible outcomes of his sentence.

"Ebony's dead?" Jack fails to mask the relief in his question.

The answer comes in the form of Lex crashing towards them, ending up on his knees, overbalanced by a triumphant looking Ebony caught mid kick.

"That's enough." Slade warns, catching Ebony by the arm before she has the chance to inflict any more damage.

Lex spits blood across the sand.

"Gel, said she saw a Techno alive."

"I think she saw that one." Jack stutters, the torch in his hand falling suddenly on a terrified looking boy.

The boy dressed as a Techno blinks back at them silently.

"Techno scum!" Lex is off again, hauling himself back up onto his feet, he falls on the startled boy.


	8. We are far too young and clever

Thank you to Nessy09 and Slayerette for the reviews, I hope you enjoy this chapter : D

**Part 2**

"Techno, scum!" Lex snarls, the blood from the swollen split on his bottom lip, rolling down his stubble covered chin.

The startled Techno boy's small blue eyes flare wide, as Lex launches his bulk upon him.

"_Don't hurt me!" _The boy wails desperately, covering his head with his arms, as he shrinks visibly.

The boy's tall, easily towering over Slade, Lex and Jack, traces of _puppy fat _still cling around his long, open face. His shock of mousy brown hair, has been lightened naturally under the sun.

The sound of the boy's oddly familiar English accent, causes Slade to pause for a moment too long.

It stirs a wave of homesickness he didn't know he ever possessed. Briefly he finds himself dwelling on the mothball, and lavender scented living room of his Grandmother, the noise of the gilded carriage clock, a retirement gift for his Grandfather, as it ticked away on the crowded mantelpiece.

Slade has never felt the grief of the loss of the family he'd been separated from by such a fast body of water. For him it was always as if the Virus never touched them, that his Grandmother was still safely ensconced in her high-backed arm chair in front of another episode of _Countdown. _

"Leave him alone, Lex." Amber warns, stepping fearlessly between the pair.

Slade likes her, he respects Amber she knows what it's like to be weak, she wears her brittle fear for her tribe, and her child on her sleeve.

As if sensing his distracted attention, Ebony crashes back into the scene, snatching at Lex by the fabric of his jacket, she jars him back roughly, her teeth bared.

"You heard, Amber!" She warns. Slade can't help but wonder what her angle is.

Amber reflects his surprise at Ebony's voluntary aid, with the quirk of an eyebrow.

He's not sure if he's quite nailed the dynamic between the two women yet, they've got history that much is obvious.

Over the however many weeks, they've all spent confined on a vessel that's more of a glorified dingy than a fully fledged boat, Slade's been gifted the opportunity of watching the various _push me-pull you _relationships play out in front of him.

For instance Slade has noticed that Amber never knowingly turns her back on Ebony, that the leader of the Mallrats always has one eye trained on her opposite number.

And that Ebony in turn always manages to return that stare with a defiant look of her own, goading Amber with her continual presence.

"You're protecting him!" Lex's snaps.

"No-one is protecting anybody," Slade attempts to reassure the struggling ex-sheriff.

"We just need to be able to ask him some questions." He continues.

The ability to placate Lex fully is a skill Slade still hasn't mastered, it's the equivalent of trying to keep a _see-saw_ level.

"I'm warning you, Slade." Lex barks. "Get your woman off me!"

In reply Ebony brings the Sheriff to his knees, with an unexpected kick to the back of his legs.

Twisting his arm up high behind his back, causing Lex to whimper loudly, she warns against the side of his head _"I'm nobody's woman." _

Slade struggles to fight back a smile at her comment, he's not sure she's ever been more honest.

He can't put his finger on when his fascination for the leather clad, fire-storm of a woman morphed into something more serious, it doesn't really matter, he's pretty sure he's in love with her, he's certain that Ebony's not in the right place to return his level of affection, yet.

"How many more of you are there?" Amber asks the trembling Techno.

"_None!" _The boy quickly shoots back a reply, he sounds almost amazed at the assumption there should be others.

"Liar!" Lex growls, his outburst quelled by a flick of Ebony's wrist.

"There's no, no-one else, I swear." The Techno stumbles over his words, his eyes darting wildly around search for some form of escape.

"You have to believe me!" The boy begs, Slade's not sure he does.

"What happened here, to all the other Technos?" Jack's question causes Slade's eye-line to dip in the direction of one of the sprawled out, half chard bodies, he can just about recognise it as female with long turquoise, and black braided hair.

The knowledge that she's probably dead because of his brother, hits him like a ton of bricks. His throat constricts in the effort of not trying to think about _Josh_.

Slade can still picture the look of rapt amazement playing over his younger brother's features, as they'd watched their older sister's début with _The Australian Ballet, _the first and final time before the Virus had descended. It's odd to think, that he is now the soul survivor of that evening's entertainment.

"What's your name?" He asks, in an effort to distract himself. Slade watches as the boy's face twists into a confused frown.

"Raferty, Tom..." The Techno fumbles.

"Tom Raferty." Slade concludes with a smile, that he knows doesn't quite reach his eyes.

_He's not sure if he can live with this guilt. _

It's been a long time since he heard anyone introduce themselves so formally.

Tom Raferty nods.

Slade watches as the sides of Tom's face slowly relax, and settle.

"It's good to meet you Tom, I'm Slade." He pulls Tom's sweat soaked hand into his own.

This is a skill Slade shares, _no shared _with his younger brother, the ability to see through a person completely.

His fingers tighten around Tom's shaking hand, he enquires in a low voice. "Where are the others?"

The boy breaks down instantly, dissolving into heavy sobs.

"I can't get them out!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It's been dark for days.

Dark and hot.

The palm leaves that have been used to conceal them act as a conductor, shielding them from the raw raze of the sun, but also locking the heat unbearably in.

Alice sweats, all three of them do.

Having adjusted fairly well to the continual darkness, her eyes quickly pick up KC's shadowy outline. He's lying with his back to her, curled up in a semi ball, she can't tell if he's feigning sleep, he's just quiet.

Tai-san on the other hand is as talkative as ever, resting against the side of Alice's body, the smaller girl babbles away incoherently to herself, the _Lycra_ of her Techno uniform as torn and fraying as her mind.

_They are all going to die. _

Alice's thoughts are now entirely dedicated to her sister, Ellie. She torments herself with different versions of Ellie's fate, that she's dead, or with Luke, or changed her mind again and gone back to Jack, in the City, and then out in the countryside, free and a slave.

The version Alice prefers is that Ellie has somehow managed to escape the Technos, flee the City, and is now living in safety with Jack.

_Does Ellie think about her?_

Alice doesn't have the opportunity to ponder her own question for long, a voice interrupts her. Not Tom's, this is someone different, for the first time in her life Alice tries to be quiet.


	9. I'd look psychotic in a balaclava

"_I can't get them out!" _Tom confesses with a gut wrenching sob.

"Who?" Amber demands, a clear note of desperation in her voice.

Slade's hands slowly curl up around Tom's neck, balling the material of his uniform in his fists.

"There was an uprising, some of the prisoners started rebelling. In the end, the two ring leaders were separated from the rest of the camp, that seemed to quiet things down." His eyes dart between Amber, and Slade as he tries to explain.

"Until we got the message from the City, about the second virus. A few of us tried to help the prisoners, we let them out, but then, they were so angry," Tom's admission is met with a snort of derision from Lex.

"They turned on us. Everything went crazy, most of the prisoners got away, the Technos were murdered."

Slade watches as Amber and Jack recoil at the word _murder_, however it barely cracks through Lex's scowl, or fail to break Ebony's stride.

"So, how exactly did you survive, if all the other Technos are dead?" Ebony says, her interest clearly piqued.

"You're not buying this!" Lex frowns in amazement.

"I'm not proud of what I did. But, I just wanted to survive." Tom admits, his eyes flashing with fresh tears.

"I hid, and I watched as my friends were killed. I didn't help them!"

Slade lets him go, and as he does the boy slowly crumples onto his knees, even Lex seems to believe him.

"We should bury the bodies, before the others get wind of this." Jack is the first to break the silence.

"Agreed." Amber nods.

"I don't think, there's any need for this to go further than the six of us." Slade observes, he's surprised when he isn't met by a refusal from Amber. Her determination as given way to a look of jaded tiredness.

"What difference does it make, it's just one more lie." She sighs, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.

Reluctantly Ebony releases Lex with a hard shove.

"Looks like the years spent cooped up with Lex, are clearly starting to rub off on you, Amber." Ebony sneers, Slade catches her eye, she simply stares back at him unrepentant in her callousness.

"It's not a joke Ebony, people are dead!" Jack exclaims, giving voice to Slade's internal monologue.

"Yea well, no amount of hanky wringing ever resurrected anyone." Ebony shoots back.

Noticing Jack's mouth start to open, Slade cuts him off before he has a chance to counter verbally.

"Amber we've got this, you should go back to your child." Even without glancing in her direction, Slade feels the atmosphere around Ebony grow tense. At the best of times she's irrationally jealous, but the idea he's trying to make some sort of move on Amber while ankle deep in dead bodies, hardens even him to Ebony, a little.

The weak, grateful smile the other woman flashes him only makes things that little bit worse.

"So, what I'm on grave digger duty now?" Ebony doesn't hold back on her disgust at the idea.

He's about to tell her to go back with Amber, or to please herself when Lex distracts him.

"What?" He frowns, having missed the beginning of Lex's rant.

"Didn't any of you listen to him, he said there are others, other people on this island!" Lex pushes himself up from his knees, keeping a weary eye on Ebony, who looks as if she's thinking of biting him.

"Not this again, look Tai-san's not on the island." She fumes.

"He's right, though." Jack shrugs.

Amber appears to brighten a little at the prospect as well, her worn expression fading.

Slade's not entirely sure how such a relevant piece of information managed to slip his mind, or more importantly how it hadn't been lost on the ex-sheriff.

"You said you weren't alone, where are the others?" He jabs in the direction of Tom, who is busy rubbing his snotty nose across his sleeve.

"Who are the others!" Lex interjects.

Tom turns grey, his eyes fixed on the dark blue pentagram tattoo on Lex's hand.

"You've seen this before?" Amber cries suddenly falling to her knees in front of the Techno, pressing her index finger hard against the raised lines on her own skin.

Slade watches as Ebony moves past him, inching closer to the group.

"The ringleaders, was one of them a boy?" He listens as Amber and Lex describe the appearances of there long lost loved ones, learning that _Bray _is a tall, handsome boy with dark hair, and that _Tai-san_ is around the same height as Ebony with blue eyes.

Slade's more than familiar with those motions, what it's like to carry around a picture in your head, and your pocket, to tire other people out with your incessant questions, and to realise one terrible day that the boy you were searching for has probably grown up.

That even if you saw him, you might not recognise him.

He lets his eyes wander across the dark, swaying outlines of a dozen or so palm trees, trying to accurately estimate how long a coconut could last before it spoiled, if they decided to move on from this island.

"When we separated the trouble makers, we put them in a holding cell with another prisoner. All the cells have different keys, in the confusion the key to _that_ cell must have been lost. I've looked everywhere, and I've tried everything I can think of to get them out, but they're stuck in there. I've done what I can to make them comfortable. I just hoped all this time, _someone _would find us." Tom gushes, tripping over his own tongue at points.

"Show me!" Lex grabs Tom by his collar, hauling him up onto his feet.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Amber tries not to let herself think too far ahead, she can't let herself get lost in the idea that somehow Bray is still alive, that he's found a way to come back to her.

She's rehearsed the moment where she will finally be able to hand him their son so many times in the confines of her own head, that sometimes even Amber gets swept along by the fantasy.

She wants so desperately for her son to be held by his Father, the way she was by her own.

Amber lets her feet lead her, tracing a line across the sand.

"Do you think it's really, Bray?" Ebony asks, betraying the true nature of her withered vestige of a heart.

_She wonders if Bray knows how many people love him._

Amber doesn't respond, she's afraid to open her mouth in case she gives voice to her greatest hope.

Her eyes roll over the heavy indents of Lex, Jack and the Techno's boot prints.

In front of her the movement stops, Amber can't bring herself to look at anything other than the sand under her feet.

Lit only by the reflection of the moon, and the faint burst of Jack's torch the sand has the appearance of ghostly, silver tipped stardust.

The rustle of leaves is downed out by the rapid beat of her heart.

Amber tries to resuscitate what's left of _Eagle,_ attempting to harness any of her former persona's strength.

"Alice!" She hears Jack's excited cry.

"Lexy! Jack!" Alice's voice booms back in reply.

And then Amber looks, when she can't bare it any more, she raises up her head, catching a glimpse of the outline of a tall boy behind Alice's tangle of dirty, russet curls.

"_Bray!" _Ebony steals his name from Amber's lips.

The boy shuffles towards the bars, his tanned face catching the light.

"KC!" She tries to smile, hot tears spilling down her cheeks.

"You came to rescue us, I told Alice, and Tai-san, you guys would." Her insides churn at KC's words, the knowledge that he's been sustained by the idea of being saved them, when he's been the furtherest thing from Amber's mind.

"Tai-san, where is she!" Lex suddenly resembles a man possessed at the mention of his wife's name.

KC limps to one side, his face growing grave, Amber knows it's bad, something is terribly wrong, and then her eyeline falls on Tai-san.

The breath catches in her chest at the sorry state of her friend, who resembles a rag doll, her hair in tatters, her Techno uniform in rags.

"She's malfunctioning."


	10. Knowing me, Knowing you

_Set 17 years later, on the Mallrats' Island. _

_**Warning I have inserted an Alan Partridge reference. And I've cast the Techno Tom Raferty as Rafe Spall in my head...fit...and geeky ; D** I also no this is a pretty terrible story, I really hope my posts aren't bothering anyone, I just like writing it : D_

**Set 17 years later, on the Mallrats' Island. AKA Nowish...**

_Dear KC,_

_Today is another beautiful, rainy day on the mainland. _

_The other day I traded for a telescope, I'm using it to mainly spy on my neighbours..._

The sound of Tai-san's sharp intake of breath rouses Jack from his daydreaming.

"I'm sorry, Tai-san." He apologises, slipping the chewed, plastic edge of his screwdriver back between his teeth.

"It's alright, Jack." Tai-san replies, however from the tone of her voice he can tell that it really isn't.

The pair are seated in Jack's work room, formed from rusty sheets of cast iron, and driftwood, the space, which is big enough to only house two people comfortably at a time, is cluttered and chaotic.

Tai-san is perched on an uneven stool in front of him, her short, bobbed hair swept forward exposing a small circuit board at the back of her head. A permanent reminder of the Technos, and their experiments.

Even Ram couldn't say what it was for, just that he'd let Ved and Mega run wild in his labs.

The night, which to Jack still only feels like yesterday, that they found Tai-san, her chip was malfunctioning, a blow to the head had caused her to end up in a loop, the same words being repeated on her lips in an unending circle.

She still looped from time to time, getting snagged on the odd word, but a shake always broke her out of it.

Ram fixed Tai-san as best he could, but the chip can never be removed, she requires monthly maintenance, with Lex had wanted the former leader of the Technos to do, but Tai-san had overruled him requesting Jack instead.

Jack can't blame her, giving the option he's not sure he'd want Ram poking around inside his brain either.

He always asks Tai-san the same three questions at the end of their maintenance sessions...

"Any sickness, headaches or double vision?"

"Not this week."

Jack's not at all sure what he'll do if she ever replies in the affirmative to any of his questions, panic probably.

"That's good, then." He snorts weakly, a heavy crease knitting across his bow as he hangs the screwdriver back up onto the wall with the rest of the scavenged tools.

"Is something wrong, Jack? You don't really seem like yourself?" Tai-san asks, spinning her stool to face him.

His brain, and mouth suddenly disconnect, before he has a chance to register his sentence Jack already feels it leaving his body.

"You don't believe in monogamy, do you?"

Tai-san doesn't appear to react at first, her expression as unreadable as ever.

"No." She answer after a beat, seeming not to notice her blunt honesty.

Jack swallows loudly, having always been more than a little unnerved by Tai-san's attitude to life.

"How," He clears his throat. "How does that work? I mean you've been married to Lex, for what, twenty years."

"I think sometimes the most natural thing in the world is to love more than one person. I just haven't met that other person, yet." She finishes with a wide smile, and it slowly dawns on Jack that, that was her attempt at humour.

"So, let me just," He nods back nervously, shifting awkwardly in his own seat.

"What you're saying is, that _you _think ,that it's possible to fall in love with someone, when you're sort of with another wo..." Jack corrects himself quickly. "_person_. And, that you can love them both, equally?"

"Yes, but only if everyone understands the situation." He watches as a thought flutters briefly over Tai-san's features, he wonders if she's thinking about Zandra. It passes quickly, and Tai-san resumes her composed posture.

Maybe it wasn't Zandra at all, maybe he's just been thinking about her, Jack's started to worry that unlike the rest of his Tribe, he lives a little too much in the past.

He feels the sudden warmth of Tai-san's hand against his own.

"If you're unhappy Jack..." He doesn't hear the rest of her sentence, he's too busy dwelling on the idea that everyone seems to think he's _unhappy. _He's bored, and unfulfilled, but he's not _unhappy_.

And then Jack wonders where his original question sprung from, and why on earth he's even think of taking advice from Tai-san of all people.

"Look at us," He grins changing the subject. "You with part of a computer stuck in your head, and me _still _exactly the same."

Maybe, he's having a mid-life crisis, he's rapidly approaching that dangerous mid-point of his thirties. It was around that sort of age that one of his uncles had a unicorn tattooed on his foot, he still remembers the Christmas dinner, where the s_aid Uncle_ was forced to expose his shame at the dinner table.

From the contorted expression of disgust written over Tai-san's face, it's evident she hasn't taken his joke well. He often finds himself impaled on the sword of insensitivity.

"I didn't mean, that." He finds himself apologising, once again.

Tai-san takes it seemingly well, with a half shrug of her shoulders.

She makes a move to leave, and Jack quickly catches her.

"You won't, tell anyone about the _monogamy thing_, will you?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey Tai-san, why don't you get over here, Trudy's put on a spread!" May calls out, from her vantage point, sprawled out on the sand, an old pockmarked umbrella shielding her from the mid afternoon sun.

She's not alone, next to May sit Darrly and Lottie, a large mat weaved from palm leaves in front of them.

Tai-san makes her way towards them, feeling the hot, white sand beneath her bare feet.

Trudy appears a moment later, carrying a large bamboo tray out in front of her heavily pregnant stomach. She's reached that stage of late pregnancy where the glow has warn off, replaced with a constantly tired, and pained expression.

Behind Trudy, a harassed looking Tom nervously jogs, a little curly haired blonde girl resting against his hip.

"Shame on you Thomas," May grins, relieving the tray from Trudy's grasp. "You're a terrible human-being, and what's with letting your pregnant wife do manual labour?" Her tongue rests firmly in her cheek, as she flashes him a mischievous wink.

May had been one of the first Mallrats to fully embrace the potential that had gone along with finding their new home. Being confronted by the idea of _The_ _Virus Mark II, _had somehow helped to put her life back into perspective, she stopped drifting, and started pursuing Salene with an almost fanatical intensity, eventually wearing the other woman down after a campaign that lasted for well over a year and a half.

"Trudy, won't let me do anything." He attempts to defend himself weakly.

Tom has changed a lot since his first meeting with the Mallrats that long night so many years ago, where on the very same beach, he'd fallen to his knees begging Ram for forgiveness for his perceived dereliction of duty.

He's not a Techno any more, the T has been wiped clean from his forehead, replaced with a thin dusting of lines, and an ever present 5 o'clock shadow.

"That's not true." Trudy argues, with a wide, now constantly present smile on her face.

Tai-san helps Trudy down onto her knees, while May and Lottie lay out the various wooden bowls before them, a bright green seaweed curry, and a large coconut and lime cake.

"Cake!" Darryl exclaims ravenously.

"_Oh_ Trudy, this is just..." May's words melt on her lips, giving way to an almost orgasmic moan a white plastic spoon hanging out of her mouth.

"You've gone to a lot of trouble, for a little beach picnic." Lottie says, a concerned frown catching across her brow.

Trudy shrugs, explaining quickly. "_This _is a little beach picnic, and it's no trouble, I enjoyed having something other to do than just being pregnant all the time."

May makes a vague noise of agreement, but it's clear she's stopped listening.

Tai-san runs her hands over Trudy's extended middle.

"It feels like the baby has dropped, I don't think you'll have much longer to wait." Tai-san observes, in her usual matter-of-fact way.

From the moment Ram fixed the chip in her head, Tai-san reverted to her familiar, usually spaced self. She filled the void her own absence created by becoming the groups healer once again, joined now by Lottie, who after a bit of healthy persuasion from Ruby eventually decided to become the Mallrats' first doctor.

They divide their roles relatively equally, with Lottie specialising in dentistry and minor operations, while Tai-san mixes the medicines, sets the bones, and delivers the babies.

"I'm trying to eat!" May rolls her eyes in disgust.

"I never felt like this with Brady, I had lots of energy, _now _I just feel tired all the time." Trudy complains, blowing her blunt cut fringe out of her eyes with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, but weren't you like fourteen, then?" May scoffs.

Trudy declines to respond.

"Do you know what I miss?" Darryl pipes up suddenly from completely out of the blue, forcing the subject to change.

"I miss roller discos." He continues.

"Roller discos?" Lottie repeats, with a look of clear apprehension, never entirely sure what nugget of stupidity will emerge from her boyfriend's mouth at any given time.

Unlike the rest of the tribe Darryl's skills are limited to say the least, which caused Amber to nominate him along with Gel, as the official party planners for the group, upon reaching dry land. The pair quickly expanded their job titles to interior designers and stylists, hosting a number of popular shows on IslandNet. Since Gel's death, however Darryl's services have mainly been employed at the Saloon as a bar tender/entertainments manager.

"We were talking about the things we missed, about not being in a City. I miss concrete, you can't have roller discos on sand." Darryl expands on his original statement.

"Babe, we had that conversation _two_ days ago." Lottie struggles to keep the note of alarm from her voice.

"I know, but I just remembered."

May drapes a friendly arm loosely around Darryl's shoulders, giving him an amused squeeze.

"Well on that bombshell, I think I'm going to take Mia down the beach, see if we can't find _Mummy_ Brady anywhere." Tom announces after a beat, leaning forward planting a quick kiss on Trudy's lips before she has a chance to object.

"How was the old appointment with Jack, does your home planet want you back yet?" May asks Tai-san with a playful smile, as the other woman settles down on her knees next to her.


	11. Flashback Ahoy

**Flashback ahoy, set during the Techno invasion of The City, a lost Mallrat appears, things get a little dark. **

Siva grabs her sister by the taut fabric of her top dragging her out of the room slamming the door hard behind them.

"What do you think, you're doing!" Java demands, struggling to tug herself free from her younger sister's impressive grip.

"Stopping you from doing something, we'll _both_ regret." Siva exclaims, her hard exterior already beginning to crumble away under the scornful gaze of her older sister.

Java intimidates her, Siva is never sure exactly what goes on inside her head, and she never feels confident with their relationship, she's always on the back foot when it comes to Java's latest scheme.

"That little fool, is going to wreck everything!" Java fumes through gritted teeth.

Siva finally lets her go, catching the look of surprise in the other girl's eye at the action.

They stare at each other for a moment, Java's anger fading, slowly. Her breathing hard.

"Java, she's just a kid, she doesn't understand." Siva says, her forehead tightening into a worried frown.

Java rolls her eyes, an expression of disgust forming over her features.

"We're all kids, Siva."

Sometimes Siva forgets that they're both under eighteen, so much has happened in such a short space of time that it feels like a lifetime ago when her biggest considerations were homework, and school.

"Let me talk to her, she'll never listen to _you _now." She ignores Java's comment.

The older girl falls into silence for a moment, Siva watches as the cogs in her head begin to visibly spin.

While she might not be as clever or calculating as any of her sisters, Siva prides herself on being a lot less transparent.

"_Okay." _Java says, apparently bowing to her sister's request.

It's all too easy, she knows how desperate, and how frightened Java is, but still Siva has never known her to let anyone get the upper hand so easily.

And then it comes, the sting in the tail.

Java catches Siva by her elbow, squeezing the flesh of the other girl's arm under her manicured nails until it blanches white.

A small pained cry escapes from Siva's lips.

"_Remember, _that it was you're attack of conscience that got us kicked out of _The Locos _in the first place. Do you really want to end up, back out there on the streets?" Java's words are like bile.

She pulls Siva closer.

"We've got a good thing here. Hot running water, electricity, cans and cans of _Coca-cola_," She cunningly refers to Siva's weakness for the sugary beverage.

"Ram's not asking much from us. But this is a deal breaker, her wants the set, that means you, me and _her. _So you better make it happen, or I will."

Siva finally reclaims her arm, her skin burning and already starting to bruise.

"Just, leave it to me."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_The sky burns._

_The flames roll towards her...and then..._

_Nothing..._

_The darkness takes her, and she hears only the sound of her own beating heart._

_It slows, and she knows she's dying._

_It doesn't hurt, at first, but then the pain comes, and her body feels as if it's being pulled inside out._

She screams, and finally opens her eyes.

A shadow falls over her vision, she gropes towards her face, her fingers meet a course patch of material over her right eye.

She screams again, and a girl suddenly steps into view, her presence obscured before.

The girl is tall, and thin, with a jagged bleached fringe. They must be around the same age, she wouldn't place her much older, or even younger. The girl's face however is cold, and hard, where it had probably once been warm, and pretty.

"What's happened to me?" She cries out, toeing the edge of hysteria.

"Your husband tried to have you wasted, _Solange_." The girl explains casually, as if she was to the conditions of the weather.

_That's not true, _is the first thing that pops into Solange's head.

"This is a trap." The words flow from her mouth, but she doesn't really feel the weight of any of them.

A tight knot of fear begins to tangle itself inside her stomach.

Solange tries her hardest to fight it down, struggling to gain some sort of composure, she attempts to sound as firm, and as calm as she possibly can when she says...

"If you've kidnapped with the idea of making some sort of profit, or deal with the Technos, all I can advise you, is that you let me go now."

Solange waits for some sort of reaction, it comes in the sound of a harsh chuckle.

"Well, I'll keep that in mind." The girl sounds as if she doesn't have much opportunity to use the mechanism of laughter that often.

She slips down into a rustic looking chair, close to the bed.

Solange takes a moment to soak in her surroundings. It's been a long time since she's been somewhere so basic. She glances around the narrow wooden room, the few sticks of meagre furniture amount only to the bed she is lying on, and the chair the girl is sitting in.

There is a fire though, roaring away inside the centre of the room, the thick grey smoke escaping through a large hole in the roof.

Solange sees the sky, and this time it's not on fire.

The moon stares blankly back at her.

"Why, can't I see? What's wrong with my face?" Her question is born out of fear, and vanity.

The suddenly flash of a blade causes Solange to shrink back into the warmth of her pillow.

From the worn leather of her belt the girl pulls a terrifyingly impressive hunting knife, when the apple hails from Solange can't say.

The girl digs the knife's edge deep into the fruit slicing a neat line down the centre, splitting apart the apple, she tosses half in Solange's direction.

"There's nothing wrong with your face." The girl squints as she bites down.

Solange's eye falls on her half, it doesn't look clean.

Her stomach rumbles dramatically, and her sudden hunger getting the better of her. Solange quickly snatches up the apple, her hands trembling slightly, as her teeth sink into the juicy, delicious flesh.

"_It's your eye, that's gone."_

Beneath the sound of her own chewing, Solange only just catches the sentence, what she does hear she doesn't register at first.

"You must have had some glass in it, it got infected, I had to take it out." The girl continues to eat nosily.

"It's alright though, it's healing nicely."

_Eye. Her eye is gone._

The knowledge overwhelms Solange in a wave, and before she can stop herself she's hanging over the edge of the bed vomiting the apple back up onto the floor.

At this the girl's face creases in disgust.

"Here drink this." From under her nose, the girl waves a water bottle, Solange bats it away.

"It's not true." She gags on air, her stomach completely empty.

"I took this off one of your _Technos, _you might want to watch it." The water bottle is replaced by a small video screen, no bigger than an old style pocket calculator.

Finally something Solange understands, something that's real.

Solange snatches at the small piece of technology, which the girl his happy enough to relinquish.

She presses the large silver bottom at the edge of the screen, a picture flickers suddenly to life, Ram flanked on both sides by her sisters Java and Siva.

The first part of the is damaged, the audio missing, in the background she watches as Ved shifts awkwardly from foot to foot just over Siva's shoulder.

Static heralds the sound of Java's voice, she moves next to Ram clutching at a clipboard.

"Fellow Technos, it is my sad duty to announce the demise of General Solange. At this sad time Lord Ram requests that any mention of the former general is strictly forbidden. Until further notice, the former general is to be classed as a _non-person_."

The transmission ends.

Solange's world spins on its axis, her sisters, her husband, the boy she loved, her friends all conspired against her.

_Non-person, _is a Techno term for wiping the slate of someone's life clean.

They were eradicating her existence, it would be now as if she never had been.

"_Why?" _Her question fills the room, but it isn't intended for the girl next to her.

"I can't answer that." The girl responds.

"All I can say is that you're not as alone as you think. Your sister..." The girl taps at the image of Siva frozen on the screen.

"She intercepted reports of a casualty brought out of the wreck alive, she's paying me to keep you safe."

Solange's heavy, broken heart lightens at the knowledge, remembering how Siva had promised they day the three of them had married Ram, that as soon as he was dead the pair of them would make a fresh start away from Ebony and Java.

"When can I see her?" Solange enquires excitedly.

"I can't answer that, either." The girl shrugs her shoulders, before adding. "When it's safe, I guess."

_When Ram dies._

And he will die, Solange is resolute in her conviction, if she has to tare down the sky, and pull the Technos asunder, she will have his life, Java's tongue, Jay's blood, and Ved's right eye.

"What's your name?" She asks the girl.

"_Patsy."_ The girl replies.


	12. Patsy

Thank you to Nessy90 and Slayerette89 for the fab reviews, cheers dudes : D

Okay, bit of blabber about this chapter, another flashback, which picks up just after the Mallrats have sailed away from the City.

It's just a bit of background to put Patsy and Solange into context for the next time we meet them.

I hope it's no tooo confusing.

Patsy clocks the girl the moment she strolls into the bar, she sticks out like a sore thumb, her pretty face contorted into a look of disgust.

The girl's long red tinted braids, hit a cord, but Patsy quickly swallows it down along with the dregs of her glass. Her chest burns, and she waves the girl over with the crook of her index finger.

The girl follows, stopping in front of the table Patsy is currently occupying.

"Did we really have to meet in a place like this?" The girl whines, as she drags over a nearby stool.

"Oh I'm sorry Commander Siva, I thought you wanted are little meeting in secret."

The colour from Siva's face suddenly drains away, panic replacing distaste.

"_Can you keep it down." _She whispers anxiously.

Patsy can't help but smile, resting her elbows against the back of her chair.

"Do you seriously believe you can pull the wool over anybody's eyes, just because your in that get up. You look like a Techno, you walk like a Techno, and you are a Techno." Patsy spits in contempt, her eyes shifting over Siva's attempt at a disguise, which doesn't amount to anything more that a tatty grey hoodie, and a pair of faded jeans.

"Yeah well, I could say the same about you." Siva shoots back.

"_You_, don't exactly look like an assassin."

_That's the point, _Patsy thinks, but lets the comment slide.

"Well, maybe I'll pay you folks a visit up on the hill one day..._oh wait_, that's right you're leaving us soon aren't you." She smirks, reaching for the brown glass bottle perched on the edge of the scarred, and battered table top.

"How do you know about that?" Siva asks nervously.

Patsy lets her hang, while she fills her own glass, the white liquid almost spilling over the rim.

"It's funny the things you hear." She shrugs.

A boy in a baseball cap floats behind them, and Siva begins to fidget nervously.

"Is he with you?" Patsy enquires, nodding in the direction of the boy, catching sight of just a flash of bleached hair.

She pushes her own bleached fringe up out of her eyes, dragging a strand of hair behind one ear.

"Let's just get down to it." Siva dodges the question confirming Patsy suspicion.

Patsy keeps one eye on the boy now hovering awkwardly at the bar.

_They should wear signs._

Silently Patsy weights up her options, running one finger over the hilt of the hunting knife on her belt, she reckons she could have the bottle at her side over Siva's head, and the vocal cords of the boy, before either of them new much about it.

"I want you to find my sister." Siva slides a video screen across the table towards it.

Patsy takes a moment to study the image of a girl sandwiched awkwardly between Siva, and another almost identical looking taller girl.

"Her name is Solange."

_Solange_ looks uncomfortable to say the least, she's also somewhat of an ugly duckling when posed between the other two radiant girls.

"Has she wandered off the reservation?" Patsy's eyebrow quirks, as she raises her glass up to her lips.

She still remembers her first taste of alcohol, how it had caused her head to spin, and how most days the only peace and sanctuary she can find is contained at the bottom of a bottle.

"I want it to stay that way." Siva responds, keeping her voice low.

"So, you want me to waste her?"

Patsy watches as an expression of horror forms on the other girl's face, marring her features.

"_She's my sister!" _Siva exclaims.

It's interesting to note that even Technos have limits.

"I want you to find her, and I'll pay you to keep her safe. If she's still alive, she'll need someone to watch out for her. She's not like," The sentence suddenly dries up, half formed on Siva's mouth.

"I don't do babysitting." Patsy warns, desperation is stamped over the other girl's face.

"Name your price. You want power, food, batteries, _booze, _I can get it for you, and I can make sure you have an unlimited supply."

Patsy quickly waves over a scantily clad waitress, ordering a glass for Siva.

"I'm listening."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The heat of the mid-day simmers over the field, causing even the bumble-bees to sound drowsy.

"I asked around town, they said _this _was the place to find your sister." Patsy announces as strides through the waist high golden spears of corn, nodding backwards in the direction of the run down dump of a town called _Liberty. _

The sudden sound of crying halts her step.

"Solange." She calls out to her travelling companion.

A shadow moves in the corn, and without pausing to think Patsy races towards it.

The sound of Solange's tears is something Patsy has grown use to, a soundtrack of their direction-less journey, that has lasted for over a year and a half.

Something changed along the road, Patsy not quite sure where or when, but it's not just a _job _any more, she wants to look after Solange, she remembers what it's like to have friends, most days she seems unable to stop herself thinking about Cloe.

Patsy finds her _friend_ on crumpled on her knees between two graves. Time hasn't been kind to the twin mounds of earth, the flowers are dead, and the grass has begun to grow. Squinting Patsy can just about make out the names on the faded markers _Java_ and _Siva_.

"She promised," Solange sobs bitterly. "...she promised that we would be together."

Patsy's mind wanders back to the first, and only time she met Siva, who'd been loyal and brave.

She reaches out resting the palm of her hand against Solange's heaving shoulders, catching a flash of the indelible mark on her hand that is her Mallrat's pentagram tattoo, the thorn in her conscience.

"_He did this!" _The venom contained within Solange's tone, catches Patsy slightly off balance.

Without asking she knows the _He _is _Ram, _the spectre, which has haunted them through forests, and hills, towns and villages.

Patsy slips down onto her knees next to her friend, feeling the hard earth beneath her body.

"He killed them, both of them. He's taken my eye, and now he's murdered my sisters!"

Patsy only asks one question.

"What, are you going to do about it?"

Silence falls, and she watches as Solange dabs at her cheeks with the fabric of her sleeves.

The quiet doesn't last long, Solange launches herself onto Java's gave, tearing at the grass, and soil with her uneven nails.

"I promised myself something, and now I'm going to get _it_."

They make their way back into _Liberty _just as the sun is setting over the distant hills. The town is eerily quiet, a chill rushes down her spine causing Patsy to clutch the fabric of her travelling coat tighter.

Solange shuffles behind her in something of a daze, covered in mud and dust, and carrying in her backpack the gruesome trophy of Java's tongue.

At this stage in her life not much can really turn Patsy's stomach, but watching Solange as she cut the swollen tongue out of a festering corpse had just about done it.

Patsy is in desperate need of a strong dose of alcohol, her eyes are drawn towards the words _Ruby's Saloon _like a magnet on a fridge.

"In here." She pulls Solange roughly in the direction of the Saloon.

The bolted doors give way to the force of Patsy's boot.

A cloud of dust envelopes them.

The Saloon's interior is shadowy, the outline of a long table, and a cluster of chairs, and abandoned glasses greet them.

Cobwebs, and the smell of emptiness overwhelms the space.

"Sit there." Patsy guides the mute Solange to one of the chairs, watching as the girl rests her head against the dusty surface of the table.

"Whoever was here it looks like they left in a hurry, no-ones been in here since." Patsy's thoughts are now almost entirely taken up by the length of the bar, a dozen half filled bottles dancing before her eyes.

She'd kill them both for a drink, which would sort of defeat the point.

Patsy still remembers the sight of Lex wobbling around _The Mall _drunk, at the time it had been funny, now all she can think is that she doesn't understand how all of them weren't _wasted_ most of the time.

Life is too hard to spend it sober, it's not the best motto in the world, but it's the only one Patsy finds useful.

The love of her short life calls, and Patsy dutifully hops over the bar, her itchy fingers tightening around the neck of a nearby bottle. She twist the cap, and without thinking drains what's left of the amber coloured liquid inside.

It slips down her throat like fire, heat spreads up from her stomach, colouring her cheeks.

Whoever left this place, left it in a hurry, the hackles on the back of her neck begin to rise, but Patsy tries her best to dismiss her misgivings.

Her attention distracted, Patsy doesn't notice that they have company until a boy glad in the remains of a Techno uniform is looming over Solange.

"We're closed!" Patsy barks, her grip tightening on the bottle.

The Techno ignores her, behind him she catches the glimpse of a bunch of rag-tag looking Technos crowded around the Saloon's now re-opened doors.

Solange glances up gasping suddenly, catching sight of the stranger standing over her.

"_General Solange, they told us you were dead." _The boy addresses Solange with a shaking, reverential tone of voice.

Patsy's surprised that he managed to recognise Solange, given that half of her face is now obscured by a dirty bandage, and her long brown and red braids have been cropped short.

Patsy feels Solange's eye trained on her, desperate in the half light.

"I don't know..." Are the only words Solange manages to form before the Techno cuts her short.

"_You've returned to lead us." _He drops to the floor in front of Solange.

"No please don't, please get up..._please, _don't do this. I don't want this." The sound of her anxious begging falls on deaf ears as the group at the door begins to slowly collect inside the bar.

Patsy's gaze shifts over the group, mostly starving and dirty, they all appear to be completely useless without the direction of a leader.

She stops herself from thinking about _The Chosen, _she's closed the door on that for good.

The situation rests of the tip of a knife edge, and Patsy has no desire in being lynched today.

"I'm the General's," She not sure what title to appoint herself. "Official _Body-guard, _the General is tired from her journey."

Patsy makes her way back around the bar, tugging a slack jawed Solange up out of her seat.

"_What are you doing?"_ She whispers against Patsy's ear.

"_Trust me."_ Patsy attempts a smile, which forms on her face in the shape of a grimace.

"_Get up stairs, and we'll try and think this thing through." _She adds quickly.

Solange nods, and Patsy addresses the cluster of Technos.

"The General will rest now, but she has given me your orders..." Patsy proceeds to reel of a list of instructions from the top of her head, which amount to 1) trying to get the power back on in the Saloon, 2) pooling the resources of the group together.

_After that Patsy has no idea what to do..._


	13. Violet smells like pineapple sex wax

"Oww get off, that went in my eye!" Theo shrieks.

The sound of splashing and Lottie's excited giggles float through the kitchen door. Behind the bar Darryl catches Ruby with a shrug.

"Sounds like they're having fun."

Ruby rolls her eyes, knowing full well what her son, and Lottie _'having fun' _will equate to.

"Why, are you such a baby!" Lottie sniggers.

Ruby ducks through the beaded curtain, which acts as a divider between her Saloon, and her home. The sight which greets her is of her son, and Lottie furiously splashing each other with water at the kitchen sink, she spots the growing puddle of soapy water spreading across her floor.

"Why, is there more water on the floor than in that bowl?" She asks, trying her best to appear stern, when actually she's enjoying the sight of her family having so much fun.

Ruby bites down on the inside of her cheek to stop herself from smiling.

It must work, because the pair fix her with twin sheepish expressions.

"She started it!" Theo exclaims, jabbing one wet index finger in Lottie's direction.

"You are such a snitch." Lottie sneers, the bridge of her nose wrinkling in disgust.

"I'm not interested in who started it, I'm finishing it. You two, do this deliberately, so me and Darryl end up doing the dishes for you." Ruby frowns.

"Yeah well, it wouldn't exactly kill Ram to lend a hand around the place, would it." The younger woman replies.

"He's busy." Ruby sighs, tired of rolling out the same old excuse, even she doesn't really believe it any more.

"Too busy to lift up a cup, or even bother to speak to his own son."

Theo shifts awkwardly from foot to foot at Lottie's observation.

Ruby's not trying to stop herself from smiling any longer.

"Theo, it's not like that." She says her expression becoming pained, remembering a time when that had genuinely been the truth.

"Why do you bother defending him, when we all know that Ram would rather spend his time staring at a screen, than be here in the real world with _us_!"

Darryl leans against the bar, straining to listen to the conversation flowing out in snatches from the kitchen, so he only half hears the sound of his name when it's called.

"Hey Darryl!" Finally he glances in the direction of the Saloon's open doors noticing Josh hovering on the threshold.

"Hi Josh, why don't you come on down." He greets the young boy with a wide, enthusiastic smile.

"I can't," Josh explains, sliding his crooked glasses off the end of his nose, wiping the lenses with the edge of his checked shirt.

"I'm a minor, I've got to be accompanied into the Saloon by an adult."

"I'm an adult!" Darryl grins suddenly remembering that he is now well over the age of eighteen, although he has yet to admit that fact on his acting CV.

"Really, ah well then, you're just the man I need."

Darryl makes his way across the Saloon towards the door, linking arms with Josh over the threshold he escorts the boy towards the bar, noticing his clashing lime green bow-tie as they walk.

"Bow-ties are cool." Josh informs him sagely.

"Why do you let him get away with it, the old _Ruby_ never would have let someone walk all over her like this!"

Theo watches his Mother's expression carefully, she looks as if she's about to cry.

He's not one hundred percent sure how he feels about the situation himself, it's not easy growing up with someone like Ram as your Father, a man who most people dislike and distrust intensely for reasons no-one has ever bothered to explain to him fully.

All Theo knows is that in the dim and distant past his Father did a lot of terrible things, mostly to their neighbours.

But he was his Dad, and up until about a year ago Ram had been a pretty great one, admittedly Ram was never in the same league as Josh's Dad Slade, who would easily take home medals in parenting.

Lottie is right, _now _everything has changed, Theo can't recall the last time they shared a meal as a family, or failing that a conversation.

Theo decides he should probably interject about now.

"Leave it, Lottie." He says feebly, he's never found it easy to assert himself within a household of two such mouthy, and opinionated women.

It's at this point Darryl thankfully appears, rescuing the situation in his usual bumbling manner.

"Hey Theo, you're _little_ friend Josh is waiting out here for you."

A wave of relief floods him, he seizes his chance to escape.

"Josh is waiting, I better go." Theo shrugs, his hands finding their natural home in his pockets.

The fight that's not a fight between the two women dissipates.

"Oh, promise me you'll take care." Theo's Mother can't stop herself from fussing, he's the boy who always has to wear a scarf, wrap up warm even though they live on a tropical island that has never known winter, and eat those extra sandwiches.

He rolls his eyes at the very suggestion.

"Mum please, I'm not planning on plummeting off a cliff. It's just a party on the beach," He quickly ads before his Mother gets the chance, remembering her many, many lectures on the subject "...and _yes, _I won't go swimming." Recalling the numerous times that his Mother has invoked the opening scene of a film called _Jaws_, when warning him about the dangers of night-time swims.

Theo's never actually seen a _film,_ but _Jaws _sounds excellent.

Theo then plants a kiss on her cheek before she has a chance to object, slipping seamlessly into the bar he catches the trail end of Josh moaning about how he's _"...not little."_

"Alright, Joshua Tree!" Theo greets his best friend with a wide grin.

"Is your last name Tree?" Darryl snorts from behind the bar.

Josh pauses to think for a moment. "No, it's Slade."

Darryl meets this comment with his own unique brand of slack-jawed idiocy, asking as the boys are half way across the Saloon. "So Slade's name is Slade Slade, that's _weird_."

"No, it's _Ron_." Josh replies.

Outside the Saloon, Theo and Josh are assaulted by another balmy evening, the temperature never manages to drop into single figures.

"Do you think Darryl's on a register somewhere?" Josh observes as they skip down the steps that lead up to the entrance of the Saloon.

"What you mean like _'behold the worlds stupidest man, how does he survive without a working brain' _sort of thing?"

As his eyes slowly becomes accustomed to the darkness of their surroundings, Theo makes out the outline of the wheelbarrow he persuaded Josh to liberate from the community vegetable patch.

"_Now, don't get angry." _

He discounts Josh's suggestion the closer they get to the wheelbarrow, which is already full with something that in no way resembles their secret stash of booze.

"What's _she_ doing?" He spits in disgust at the sight of Josh's sister, sitting in their wheelbarrow, her massive pink and white tutu sucking up all possible available space.

"_She_ has a name." Estelle asserts, folding her arms across her chest.

Theo can't believe that _she's _actually pouting.

"_You _look like a cake!" Theo remarks his a sneer, _she's _ridiculous, her very presence sets his teeth on edge.

"I'm going to accept that as a compliment, _Theodore." _Estelle grins innocently back up at him.

_He completely hates her._

"Well don't, because it wasn't!"

"Yeah alright, can you two just shut up, you don't like each other we're all on the same page with _that_. And there's nothing I can do, she threatened to tell our Dad about the booze if I didn't let her come." Josh illuminates the situation with a long drawn out sounding sigh.

"_You_ are such a snitch!" Theo turns Lottie's earlier sentiment on Estelle.

She retaliates by poking out her tongue.

"Great well, now you've both got that out of your systems, can we move?"

"I can't." Estelle whispers softly, her expression changing from deviance in the face of Theo to downcast and sheepish.

"I'm stuck." She admits.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx

Leaning against the bar Ruby absent mindedly listens as Ellie reads out the weather forecast for the forthcoming day on the screen perched in the corner of the Saloon.

"Well fancy that, clear skies and sunshine, _again._" The sound of Tom's voice snaps her back into the reality of her surroundings.

Ruby struggles to remember what she'd even been thinking about.

The weather wasn't always quite so perfect though, for instance Theo's birth had coincided with one of the island worst ever hurricanes, which had left Ram stranded on the mainland with Amber, Lex and Slade.

She can't help but smile as Tom lifts Mia up onto the bar, the pretty toddler has a head full of floppy blonde curls, and a mouth that is currently occupied by a clutch of brightly coloured, plastic keys.

"Are you hooked on the hard stuff, already?" Ruby grins at the little girl, who simply dribbles down the front of her lilac coloured dungarees in reply.

"Well, I did catch her trying to sell some of her toys to Lex for bottle money." Tom chuckles indulgently, ruffling his hand through the little girl's hair.

"How's Trudy, it can't be long now, until _'D'_ day." Ruby's not entirely sure about her sudden employment of mimed quotation marks, she giggles softly.

"Holding up, we're on the home stretch, Tai-san thinks it should be any day now. We're excited, but it's a bit crazy, you know, I've never thought as myself as a Dad, before, I mean Brady was twelve when me and Trudy, _you know_."

Ruby does know, she can still clearly recall the evening where Alice had unceremoniously dumped Tom in the middle of the Saloon for cheating on her with that..._fruitcake of a former Supreme Mother, _she pretty sure she's substituting the word _fruitcake _for another _F _related word.

"And I mean, Brady already had two Fathers the mighty Z.O.O.T..." He glances nervously in Mia's direction at the invocation of Zoot's name, nothing terrible happens.

"And Bray who is _perfect." _Tom fails at concealing his bitterness towards his rival.

"I heard that." Ruby teases.

"I mean, I'm from _Grays _in _Essex_, I can't compete with a _demi-god_, and the worlds most compassionate man." He huffs.

"Where is Brady?" Ruby asks, deciding now would be the right time for a subject change.

"Some beach party Amber persuaded her to supervise, but you know Brady, she doesn't _do _supervision, or responsibility."

She nods in complete agreement, Brady having just walked out half-way through the lunch hour rush during a trial shift.

A sinking feeling begins to overtake Ruby at the thought of the antics her son, and his friends will probably end up falling into. She knows it's ridiculous, because at Theo's age, Ruby was self-sufficient, with a pair of skinned knees, and her own burgeoning business, but he's her _baby_, and all logic seems to pale in the face of that.

"What can I get you two, anyway?" She says noticing that KC has started to sway in the general direction of the bar.

"_Food_. Trudy's taken the night off from cooking, and I'm too afraid to cook anything in front of her. So, me and Mia were wondering if we could get a takeaway, nothing special fish and chips, three times, would be great." Ruby chortles at the suggestion, buzzing the doorbell on the bar to alert Darryl to the order.

It's only been two months since Trudy departed the Saloon on maternity leave, but Ruby already bitterly misses the other woman in her kitchen, there isn't a better cook on the island, and her own merge lunch and evening menu repertoire simply doesn't measure up.

Briefly Ruby catches sight of Ellie's familiar blonde locks once again gracing the screen. She leaves Tom, and Mia at the bar, ducking her head through the beaded curtain she catches sight of Darryl slaving over a small camp stove.

"I've got an order here for fish and chips three times, do you think you can handle it?" He's currently struggling with scrambled eggs.

"I'll try." He frowns, catching a bead of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

She turns to duck back into the bar, when the the question she really wants to ask suddenly gets the better of her.

"Darryl," She says, picking at a loose piece of skin on her thumb. Darryl grunts back at her, which is enough for Ruby to continue.

"I thought your fashion show was meant to be screened tonight?"

The conjunction of the words _fashion_ and _show_ are enough to capture Darryl's attention.

"It was, but Ram said he was bumping it." He shakes his shoulders, the very picture of forlorn.

"Ram should re-name the channel _Ellie-Net, _since she's the only person who is ever on there now."

Ruby tries to raise a smile, but she can't quite bring herself to do it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brady and Alex part as soon as Bray rounds the corner.

His blushing cousin immediately turns on her bare heels, hurriedly collecting up a pile of sticks, and driftwood for the fire that is already raging away.

"What, the hell has happened to you?" Alex asks in amusement, his lips swollen.

_The fake tan._

Bray can't entirely recall the mechanism, which had encouraged him to trade with KC for one of Gel's treasured bottles of fake tan, seeing the expression on his best friend's face he now knows it was a terrible mistake.

"What?" Bray replies defensively, an awful liar, he shifts his weight from one foot onto the other, and then back again.

"Your face is really brown." Alex explains, struggling to master the filter between what he thinks, and what he says.

Bray feels heat burn his cheeks, and he squeaks out a _"So!"_

"_Yeah_, I got a suntan." His hands fumble across his chest, he feels transparent. If Alex is this bad, Bray shudders to picture Violet's response.

"Since this morning?"

"It's a nice day," Bray stumbles."I'm just not as pallid as you lot, I _exercise_."

And then Bray sees her, and his throat dramatically constricts.

_Violet._

The most beautiful, and violent girl on the island.

She smells like _pineapple sex wax_.

Bray still vividly remembers the first time she ever punched him, and the fact that she use to enjoy wiping her snot on the back of his head at school.

He lost his heart to Violet at the age of ten, when she'd brutally rugby tackled him, burying his face in the sand.

Violet is Bray's idea of perfection, right down to her almost buzz-cut, and perpetually sneering expression.

The only problem is her disdain of his very existence.

"Not this, again." The sound of Alex's voice brings Bray back into reality, he quickly closes his mouth.

Alex has been forced to spend most of their friendship listening to Bray's unrequited obsession with his twin sister.

"Bray man, there are other girls on the island. What about Estelle she's _really_ pretty,"

Bray notices Brady's eyebrow arch at Alex's suggestion.

"_Really?" _She repeats, with Brady it's often hard to tell if she's joking or being serious.

"You _know_ what I mean. Or Fenny, she's _obliging_."

_Fenella _as she's better known, is a recent addition to their group, who KC won on the mainland during a poker game. She'd originally been intended as a sort of pet/friend/slave for Gel, who was horrified by the sight of the flea invested child.

Bray's Mother had immediately removed Fenny from the dubious care of KC and Gel, relocating the girl to his family home, where she'd promptly infected them all with nits.

Fenny had also primarily communicated in a language no-one had ever heard before on the island, which had led Salene to suggest that it might possibly be Swedish, definitely European of origin.

She has now enough English under her belt, to be able to converse easily in a thick accent. She now also lives with Alice, helping her to run the vital ferry service.

The small circular burn scars that pickle her arms, and legs, denote that her primary use on the mainland had been as an ashtray.

"Fenny's not my type." Bray whispers, a point, which has little to do with her lack of personal hygiene, and more to do with the fact that Fenny just isn't _Violet_.


	14. Too much fighting on the dancefloor

"You know this place is haunted." Josh grunts slightly with the effort of pushing the combined weight of his sister, and the wheelbarrow across the dense jungle floor.

"There's no such thing as _ghosts_." Theo snorts, his attention almost entirely taken up with studying a small piece of paper.

"This is taking _forever_." Estelle complains.

"Apparently there's meant to be this mass grave filled with _Technos." _Josh continues, his words heralding a sudden gust of wind.

"What's a _Techno_?" Estelle asks, wrinkling the bridge of her nose at the unfamiliar word.

Theo takes a moment glancing up from his own hand drawn map to respond to her question.

"They were some old tribe on the mainland, my Dad use to lead." He surmises, turning the paper upside down, and then sideways.

Estelle flashes him a sceptical sidelong stare.

"So, what do you think happens when you die, then? If you don't believe in ghosts." Oddly Josh forges on with his original train of thought, his arms aching in their sockets.

"You just die." Theo's voice is filled with his lack of interest on the theological subject.

"This is _morbid_!" Estelle squeals, snatching the map from Theo's grasp she strains to follow the faint lines, and terrible hand writing under the beam of his touch.

"How can you read this!" She exclaims. "All the B and D's are the wrong way around."

"I don't think he can." Josh snorts, letting the wheelbarrow rest. He winces as he rotates his shoulder blades under Theo's pained expression.

"You're my _best friend_, you're meant to agree with me!" The other boy petulantly observes, sensitive over the metaphorical wound of his _dyslexia_, which has never properly healed.

"She's my sister _dude_, I have to live with her for the foreseeable. Anyway, _Stellie _isright, you can't read that thing, and I think we're going round in circles. Lets just forget about it, and go to the party, so _we _lost a bet, it's no big deal."

Anyone who doesn't know Estelle and Josh would probably guess their ages incorrectly, for even though he has only just turned thirteen, Josh has the causal, relax demeanour of a much older boy.

He's protective towards his hard to translate sister, acting as a bridge between her and their peers. It's no secret that Estelle doesn't really have any friends of her own.

Perhaps not quite as intelligent as his precocious sibling, Josh is bright enough to easily hold his own in a class of children two or three years older than him.

"Stop being such a _brat_!" Estelle spits, before demanding, with the point of her finger.

"Wheel me to the party, _Joshua_!"

Josh and Theo exchange a quick glance in the aftermath of her command. Although neither of them speak, they both know exactly what the other is thinking.

Josh wordlessly lifts up the handles of the wheelbarrow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You do realise, that you are probably going to die a _virgin_." Alex observes.

Bray tries to ignore his friend's sentiments, he doesn't care anyway.

_Well _of course he does, he's got all the normal urges of an average late teenage boy, and the thought of dying alone, and never knowing the physical side of another persons affection, does send a jolt down to his very soul.

"I'm only joking _mate_," Alex hovers back into view, his expression filled with pale concern.

Bray feels the sudden warmth of a hand on his shoulder, he returns the flash of a smile as Brady wraps one slender arm around his neck.

"Think of the positives, this way at-least you'll always be _thin_." She teases warmly, his fingers tangling between her own many ringed digits.

"We'll when you put it like that, lead me to the _hermitage_!" Bray snorts back unimpressed by the suggestion.

Bray and Brady had at one time been as close as siblings, the fact that they are bonded by the same blood, and that their Mothers are best friends has lead him, and his younger brother Dal to spend most of their formative years in the company of their cousin.

Things haven't been the same since Brady has returned from her travels, she keeps secrets now in the way she never did before. Bray's not certain if she ever intends to tell him that she's quiet obviously sleeping with his friend.

"Oh Bray, is the only woman you could get, your cousin." Violet sneers, Fenny giggles next to her.

The two girls have formed an unlikely companionship, built on the foundations of bullying, thieving, and _Tai chi._

Bray often watches the girls as they practice _Tai chi, _along with his Mother, Alex and Tai-san. It's not as bad as it really sounds, because _watching_ can easily be converted into _admiring. _Having tried a couple of lessons himself and he does genuinely admire Violet's grace, and ability.

Bray turns almost purple as he struggle to pluck a single word from thin air.

His tongue limply lifts from the inside of his mouth.

"Why are you jealous, _Vi_." Alex is the one to respond, rescuing the little that is left of his friend's dignity.

Bray gives him a nervous smile.

"_Brady's_, not really my type." Violet shoots back, with an arrogant flex of one arched eyebrow.

"Thank god!" Brady exclaims, resembling Trudy most when disgusted.

"_Jag, skulle inte säger ingen." _Fenny chuckles, her words suddenly indecipherable.

Violet suprises the small group by answering her friend.

"_Verkligen."_ She says, her broad accent clashing against the word.

"_Oh ja." _Fenny concludes, with an enthusiastic nod of her head.

Overtime Fenny has begun to morph slowly into the image of Violet. For instance they both share with Alex, an impressive, and colourful collection of _Chakra _tattoos, Violet's are situated as a indigo smudge on her forehead, and a long thick blue line running across her throat, while Fenny carries a green mark on her chest, and an orange splodge further down on her exposed abdomen.

Despite this there are two very apparent differences between the girls, while Violet's hair is as short as it can possibly be without her going to the effort of shaving it all off, Fenny's is only partial shaved at the back of her head, the front of her however is white blonde, and messy, bushy pigtails.

Violet also wears considerably more clothes than her friend, in fact she wears more clothes than anyone on the island, even Theo, she's always bundled up in long, oversized, completely unnecessary jumpers, even on her beaten up old surf board she wears a thick black t-shirt over her bikini.

Bray has been able to note however that Violet does posses a pair of wonderful legs.

Theo and Josh come clattering from the jungle suddenly, surprising the group.

"This should be good." Violet grins, elbowing her friend conspiratorially.

While Alex, and Brady busy themselves with winding up the handle on the _Gramophone, _Jay has kindly lent them for the night, Bray continues to silently gaze at the object of his affection as she advances on the two younger boys.

Theo pushes Josh forward.

"I hope you haven't forgotten about our little bet, _boys_." She purs, the amber light from the fire flickering over her features, giving her an almost demonic quality.

Fenny squares up behind her, only giving Josh the smallest of smiles.

"Well about that,"

"Cough up the booze!" Violet barks, cutting Theo off mid sentence.

"Yea!" The blonde girl postures over her shoulder, adding extra menace to the scene.

"Oh come off it, you live in a Saloon, it runs out of the taps like water!"

"We don't have any tapped beers." Theo informs innocently.

Violet dramtically rolls her dark, oval shaped eyes.

"Alright the truth is, we do have some booze, but we've lost it." Josh intercedes truthfully.

Violet and Fenny suddenly burst into a bout of excitable giggles, which make them sound much younger than they actually are.

"You two are such _dorks_, you should give up strumming your little guitars, and try and make it on the comedy circuit." She says, clutching her sides.

Her smile quickly fades as she snaps her finger addressing Fenny.

"Why don't you show this _kids_, how it's done." It's an order, mascaraing poorly as a suggestion.

The other girl hurries off quickly disappearing unafraid into jungle, a moment later she reappears dragging a wooden crate through the sand behind her, Bray quickly steps forward to help, the sound of glass clinking inside the covered box.

"_Wait_, hang on, that's our crate!" Theo explodes in a flurry of sudden outrage, and finger pointing.

The look of supreme arrogance flooding Violet's very being, quickens the pace of Bray's heart. He can't help but be impressed by her audacity, the fact that she and Fenny have stolen the boys stash from under their noses.

"Oh no _boys_, this is very much _ours_." Her laughter resembles a full bellied roar, Bray is so caught up in Violet's gloating that he almost misses the sound of a faint plea for help.

Violet catches it too, jabbing an accusing finger at the boys in front of her.

"So not only have you failed to bring anything useful, but you've also dragged along that oxygen thief!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Another one, General." The only Techno perimeter guard Patsy can never remember the name of informs Solange, with a depressed sigh.

The night air is thick with the smell acrid smoke.

Patsy had been able to see the distant glow of the fire from her hotel bedroom window, it had almost appeared to burn through the fabric of her very curtains.

But, that was just the guilt, the knowledge that the burning will continue until the only Mallrat in the City goes to claim the victim.

She can't go, she's afraid that somehow seeing The Guardian will kill the woman, and somehow drag the terrified child back out of her.

Her gaze shifts silently over the chard, contorted remains of the human being symbolically dumped on the doorstep of the Techno's head quarters.

Patsy can still remember the place when it operated under the name the _Horton & Bailey Hotel._

She notes, with only the barest hint of irony, the re-arrangement of her circumstances, which have led her to taking her morning swim in Ebony's infamous, old pool.

Live is funny, and it's also short, and in this case brutal.

"What really surprises me, is that they managed to find a virgin in this City, at all." Patsy observes with practised indifference.

Her remark falls flat.

"Is there any way of identifying, who she was?" Solange questions the guard.

"She could be scanned, part of her bar-code might still be readable." The guard replies, and Patsy notices the heavy black lines under his eyes, she knows she must look the same, they're all tired.

"Have her scanned, and if you can return the body to her tribe." Solange orders, as the sentence leaves her mouth the sound of chanting floods the space around them.

**ZOOT ZOOT ZOOT!**

That's all they hear morning, noon and night, the name of a long dead boy repeated over, and over again.

Reality space is the only place any of them can now retreat for peace.

She went to his funeral, Zoot's.

Patsy is actually older Zoot now, much older, the grand old age of _thirty, _although she feels older, careworn even.

She's also alarmed at how much she is begin to resemble the various picture she'd seen of her Mother at the very same age.

The guard slips a thick, white sheet over the remains, and Patsy tries to forget the image of the girl before them.

"I need a drink." She exclaims, realising that, that particular phrase has morphed into somewhat of a catchphrase of hers around the Techno HQ, she's even caught from time to time, a couple of the kitchen staff using it in various impressions of her.

Solange has condemned her to various periods of imposed rehab, from virtual reality space where she had to talk through her numerous mental problems, and personality defects, to locking Patsy in her suite _cold turkey_, but nothing has ever taken.

"Well, I need you sober." Solange responds, leaving the grim spectacle behind them.

Despite her usual condition, Patsy can still clearly recall the day she walked back into the City, that had been her home for so many years.

The streets, which held a memory on each corner for her, had been empty, the place deserted in the fear of a virus that had failed to materialise.

It reminded her of her Father's favourite_The Special's _song _Ghost Town._

_Too much fighting on the dance floor._

There had been no second virus.

She still can't bring herself to visit The Mall, still afraid of what she may find inside. One of Patsy's earliest orders as Solange's top Commander had been to seal off the old shopping centre, unable to imagine anyone other than Mallrats ever making the place their home.

Those early days had been rough, trying to persuade tribes back into the once densely populated city had been hard, but they'd done it with the offer of various amenities, the water and electricity grid were still connect.

Soon the City had boasted a hospital, a school, even a basic sort of lending library.

Of course this had come at a price, but hard labour in the coal yards was ofset by limitless access to reality space, and of course weekends off.

And when everything had finally been set in place, that better future she'd always heard people like _Amber, Bray_ and _Danni_ eulogising about had finally been within reach, The Chosen had appeared.

Slowly sector after sector had been swallowed up by their madness, now the only thing that keeps The Chosen from reclaiming the City is the small band of Technos operating out of _Ebony's_ old bolt hole.

Patsy watches as Solange holds up her telescope to her remaining eye.

"They've never been this close before." The other woman says, the thick cord of her dressing gown suddenly caught in the breeze.

"I think we should leave, we can go back to The Techno's old base in the _White City,_ it's still operational, and there's just as many resources for us to exploit there, as there are here. If we can boost our numbers, we might even be able to come back one day and re-take the place." Pasty will do anything to escape, sometimes in her darker moments, she lets herself believe that she is in fact the one The Chosen are following not Zoot.

"I'm not leaving, not yet, not when I'm so close. After the Tribal Gathering everything will be finished." Solange digs her heels in the way Patsy dreaded she would.

Patsy rolls her eyes, and suggests. "Why don't you just give The Guardian the location of the island _He who must not be named, _is currently resident of. I'm sure he'd love to take him out." The_ He who must not be named _is of course, and as ever RAM.

The vein in the centre of Solange's forehead begins to vibrate, rising to the surface, Patsy notes that's a very bad sign.

"So, you want me to let The Guardian know the location of the island?" She asks, twisting the question back on Patsy.

"Yes, of course!"

"Even if the island in question happens to be full of your former Tribe?" Solange snaps the telescope closed.

Patsy is suddenly emotionally floored by the other woman's revelation. She'd never thought any of her former tribe would still be alive, let alone together.

_Cloe _and _Salene, _she wonders if either of them are still alive, there are no two people she would rather see in the world, other than her brother of course.

Even now, after so much, and so many years she still misses them.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_Right_, that's it, I've had enough!" Ruby's sudden out-burst startles Darryl, causing him to spill KC's pint down the front of his shirt.

"I'm s'not...paying for that." KC slurs, appearing to clutch at the stability of the bar to keep himself up right.

"When do you ever pay?" Ruby snaps back, instantly outraged by the suggestion.

"Your tab is as long as my arm." She huffs.

KC blinks mutely back at her.

"Hold the fort Darryl, I'm going out." Ruby announces, retrieving her jacket from a nearby coat hook.

Darryl opens his mouth to protest, but she jumps in before he has the chance to utter a single syllable.

"Whatever you do, _don't _let _KC_ behind my bar! And remember _Lex _is still _barred_."

KC makes a vague spluttering noise, it's hard to tell if he's trying to speak, or breath, or both.

"Actually, _don't _serve him any more." Ruby adds, reflecting on the younger man's shocking condition.

She's run into her fair share of drunks in the past, and shamefully kept on serving them, but KC has to be the very worst case Ruby has ever encountered. He's such a habitual drunk that even Lex, _King Rat_ has started to give up on him.

Even though it's been three long years, Ruby can still remember with horrible clarity the night that Gel died.

Despite Gel's best efforts to irritate everyone on the island at one time or another, Ruby misses her the silly things she use to say, and especially _do_, she fully aware that Darryl still feels the loss of his best friend deeply, but it's KC who understandably can't seem to move past the event.

Ruby slips into her jacket as she makes her way across the busy Saloon.

_New Liberty_ is a small place, apart from her Saloon the only other houses are Ebony and Slade's, and Alice's. Next to Alice's small, squat little dwelling is her pigsty, currently containing four happily little porkers _Lex, KC, Ram _and _Tom's _namesakes. _Ebony _had only recently been slaughtered, and Ruby had experienced no end of delight turning the spit.

Across the narrow dirt path sits a large concrete bunker, it had been one of the only buildings on the island when they had first arrived, it now serves as Ram's television station, much to the Mallrats' general chagrin.

Ruby pushes open the heavy metal door, demanding "Where is she!"


	15. Bury me under the willow

**Thank you to everyone who is reading, I hope you're all still enjoying it : D Thank so much to my lovely last reviewer, I can't believe I have 8 reviews : D**

"And that's your lifeline," Alex observes, as he runs his index finger down the middle of Brady's palm.

The flickering light from the fire casts a long shadow over his face, shrouding him in a cloak of mystery.

Oddly, she finds herself recalling the night she left the island in her little boat, with the a small ration of food and water, and an old lace parasol to keep the sun off. Brady had plunged herself into the wide, unknown ocean, wilfully rejecting the idea of hugging the coast of the mainland for safety, she'd been there before.

Brady had been well aware of the dangers sharks, pirates, storms, but she'd trusted that fate would have other ideas for her, and she'd washed up on the shore of what had felt like a different world, when the batteries of her personal stereo had run out, and she'd been on the very last page _James Hilton's Lost Horizon, _a book, which she'd forgotten to return to her aunt Amber.

"It's long, but here," The sound of Alex's voice snaps Brady back into the real world like elastic, she decides to try and pay attention.

She remembers waiting in line on the steps of a massive, ancient crumbling stone temple, waiting her turn patiently to have her fortune told by a woman who claimed to be able to read the future with the entrails of chickens, on an alter, where thousands of years ago they use to pluck out the hearts of human sacrifices to appease various, long forgotten gods.

"_here, _you've got a classic case of a fork in the road," He presses the faint line in her flesh.

"...you've got two very different paths, one that's long, and one that's short, and complicated, _that's interesting_."

"For you, maybe." Brady chortles, capturing Alex's finger in the curl of her hand.

He leans in close to the side of her head, his warm breath against the side of her face.

"You don't really believe destiny can be written on the palm of your hand, do you?" Brady's not sure how to answer that particular question, not knowing if Alex's believes it himself or not, he is after all Tai-san's son.

"I'm not sure." She reaches her honest conclusion.

"What about yours?" Brady enquires, still clutching at his finger.

Alex grins, resting his weight on his elbows, suddenly he looks an unnerving amount like Lex, she tries not to let herself dwell on the implications of that.

"Mine is completely boring, although there is the interesting incident with an owl." She bursts out laughing.

"And there goes our _adult supervision_, off to have sex with my brother against a tree." Violet sneers, the corners of her mouth twisting in disgust, as Alex and Brady attempt to sneak off without being noticed.

"_No_, Alex wouldn't, Brady's so _old_." Estelle surmises.

Violet just stares at her wondering at what point she invited the other girl to join the conversation, she takes a long swig from the bottle resting between her legs.

"She can't be that old." Theo surmises, with a dazed expression on his face, as he lifts up his own empty bottle to his eye.

"I see no ships." He giggles, before sliding sideways.

"Well, I think you're wrong." Estelle says.

Bray stops dancing with Josh and Fenny, with one eye always trained on Violet he watches as her expression contorts.

"What, did you just say to me?" She asks in disbelief.

Estelle opens her pink neon coloured lips to speak again, and seal her fate.

Thinking fast Bray jumps in front of her, holding out his hand.

"Hey Estelle, do you wanna dance with me?" He tries to keep the hint of nerves from his invitation, behind him he can feel that Violet is already up on her feet.

"Alright." Estelle replies, apparently oblivious to the situation.

She takes his hand, and Bray notices how soft, and warm her skin is. He pulls her up onto her feet, casting a glance back at Violet.

"Do you want to..."

"DANCE!" She spits out the word violently. "With _you_ and _her_, get real!"

By now Bray knows he should have gotten use to Violet's constant rejection, but he feels the barbs of tongue as if it was her very first insult.

The music begins to wear down as the _Gramophone _runs out of charge, getting slower and slower until it finally stops.

Bray realises after a beat that Estelle is still holding his hand.

"Wind it up then, Violet." Josh calls, half way through a dance routine with Fenny, his arms high above his head.

Violet's eyes drift scornfully towards the _Gramophone, _she glares at the machine.

Bray shakes Estelle off, kneeling down close to Violet, he turns the handle, and they stare silently at each other, he's waiting for her to pass comment, but she doesn't speak, and neither does he. It's like a really intense game of chicken.

When the handle refuses to turn any more, the first shaky bars of _Your Dancing on My Heart _played by the _Victor Sylvester band _flows forth.

Bray learnt to _quickstep_ to that song, his Mother decided to teach him, and his younger brother Dal one evening, rolling back the thick, woollen Chinese rug, playing the song over and over again, while she'd shown them how to move their feet, and where to put their hands. By the end of the lesson the three of them had ended up a mass of helpless giggles on the floor.

Forcing a smile he takes both of Estelle's hands, asking..."Do you want to learn how to _quickstep_?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_Where is she?"_

At the sound of his wife's indignant voice Ram quickly shuts his laptop, and tries to look as normal as it's possible for him to ever appear.

"You shrieked, my _love_." He grins, as Ruby bursts through the door, a blonde whirlwind of agitation.

The first time Ram ever noticed her as a person of interest, rather than just another stinking, useless _Vert, _Ruby had been in a similar state, a woman on a mission.

"Don't try that on with me, _Harold_!" She fumes, deploying the use of his first name, a stratagem Ram's noted she only ever employs in moments of extreme anger, but only when they're alone.

Although it's not exactly what he hoped for, Ram has managed to claw something back from the jaws of resounding defeat. In this case it is his beloved television station.

And okay, he's gone from running his own tribe of technically enhanced _super-soilders, _to now operating out of basically a garage with a web-cam.

"Where's who?" Ram's not afraid to admit to one of his many guilty pleasure being the fact that he delights in occasionally winding his wife up, and watching her go_, _she never fails to take the bait.

"_Ellie." _Ruby's expression is murderous, and it takes him a moment to realise that she's actually pulling her jealous face.

He's missed that look.

Not that his ego has ever needed any sort of boost, it's edifying to note that a woman like Ruby, confident, attractive, and completely at ease in social situations, willingly chooses him, over and over again.

"Ellie?" Ram replies innocently, pressing his elbows down across the lid of his precious self-built laptop.

Ruby looks as if she's about to suffer an aneurysm, a moment later he's assailed by a serious of accusations, and questions.

_I know you're sleeping with her!_

_What happened to Darrly's fashion show?_

Ram decides to answer the _second_ question first.

"Darrly, put together an hour long VT on _Elizabethan_ ruffs." He lets his answer hang in mid-air for a moment, watching as the corner of Ruby's mouth creases into the briefest of smiles.

"What gives you the impression that I'm sleeping with Ellie? If I want an opinionated blonde, I'll just come home to you, _dearest_." As those last few words leave his mouth he realises that he's overstepped the mark on the sarcasm.

"So, why don't you?" Ruby asks straight faced, Ram begins to finally grasp the seriousness of the situation, this is just another one of their _tongue in cheek, _bicker sessions, this is real.

Theirs is not a relationship that flourishes on vulnerability, or even honesty.

The day they got married Ruby had asked him to tell her one terrible truth about himself, and to leave it there, she'd never wanted to know the grim details of his past.

So, that was the day Ram had told her his real name, and in return Ruby had whispered one very interesting word.

_Antidote._

With a stiff back owing to his terrible posture, Ram edges himself up out of his chair, working his way around his desk, Ruby doesn't move, her arms folded firmly across her chest.

"Ruby." The tone of his voice changes, growing softer, as he reaches out snatching one of her hands, pulling her forward slightly.

Ram knows his wife well enough to know if she hadn't wanted to move, no force in the Universe could make her.

He catches her eye, and smiles, watching as familiar warmth returns to Ruby's grey gaze.

"You, Theo and Lottie are the beats of my black heart." Ram admits, a sudden thickness growing in his throat.

Reclaiming her hand, Ruby joins him against the edge of his desk.

"You should just tell me what you've done _now_, I'll only find out in the long run." Being addressed in the same tone as his teenage son causes him to smirk.

Ram watches as Ruby twists the small band of silver that serves as her wedding ring.

"Who says I've even _done _anything. This time _my love_, I am completely innocent."

She rolls the ring all the way done to her knuckle, before pushing it back up her slender finger.

"Well you can't expect me not to be suspicious, when you hide yourself away in here half the time? I had to lie to Lottie, defend you, and make it seem like it's perfectly normal that you never speak to _our_ son any more. I didn't marry you, so that I could spend every night alone watching KC drain the contents of my bar."

"So, that's something you want _us_ to do together?"

Ruby fixes Ram with a stare that causes him to inadvertently swallow.

Which leads him to do something he hardly ever does, Ram tells her the truth, it's an odd sensation.

"When I was Theo's age, I was pretty much poised on the edge of world domination,"

Ruby shoots him one of her sidelong stares, before clasping her palms to her chest and exclaiming mockingly. "Oh Ram, you're the _King_!"

"I've always preferred to think of myself more as an _emperor_. _But_ my point is I had it all, an army that would follow me to the ends of the earth, _Java _and _Siva,_" He pauses for a moment, realising that he's managed to edit his history so well in his own head, that he's almost forgotten that, that's not true at all.

"...I didn't care about anyone, it was all just so many games running at the same time."

Ruby shifts awkwardly next to him, Ram is aware of how much she still dislikes this aspect of his life.

"I could sit here a reel off a million excuses as to the reasons why I was like that, but the truth is, it was _just me_, and it will _always_ be me. I see that in Theo _sometimes_, it was different when he was smaller, I knew how to be his _Dad_ then, but now I just...I don't want to turn him into another version of _me_." Ram lets his chin rest limply against his chest, his words greeted by silence from his wife, he never thought of something quite being so terrifying.

The table underneath him dips as Ruby moves, he feels her shadow hanging over him. Ruby takes him suddenly by surprise her fingers hooking under his chin raising his head to meet her eye line, and then she kisses him.

Ram's never been that comfortable when it comes to kissing, he'd been the first to admit that's he's not actually that good at it, he's not had nearly enough practice at it having only physically kissed three women in his entire life.

Ruby however never seems to complain, in fact she always seems more than enthusiastic in the act.

"You're an _idiot_." She says, when they finally part, her pale lipstick is smudged.

Ram struggles to think of an adequate rejoinder to Ruby's statement.

"There's not perfect way to be a parent, but I think we've muddled through pretty well, with both Theo and Lottie, _surprisingly._" She quirks one arched eyebrow skyward.

"Now," Ruby takes both of his hands in her own. "...you're coming back to the Saloon with me, I've got a stack of dishes that need drying."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Patsy sits on the edge of her bed, listening to the distant sound of _The Chosen's _endless chanting. She's not there though, she learned a long time ago, how to separate her mind from her body.

The rest of the world flows around her.

Solange opened the Fantasy Archie for her, and there Patsy found row after row of the recordings of her old Tribe, while her friend outline her plan.

_Cloe, Amber, May, Lex, Tai-san, Bray, Ebony._

The Techno's like to catalogue things, so all the fantasies had been helpfully listed into genre, with descriptions running down the spines of the various CD's.

While Solange talked, Patsy had been hurriedly thinking, she didn't believe KC could write, let alone compose a letter. She'd seen that hand writing before though, and it had taken her a good twenty minutes to connected the dots. It was the same hand, that had always changed her duties on the Mallrat's cleaning rota, from dusting to mopping floors every Tuesday without exception.

Patsy noted that _Lex's_ library was extensively concerned with women, she'd looked in wide eye horror at the exclusion of her own name in bold capitals. From the twenty titles about _Tai-san_, the four on _Ebony_, and the surprising _ten_ dedicated to _Amber_, Patsy had pulled out one of the CD's with _Zandra's_ name on it.

"_You're, taking that one?" _Solange had asked.

"_It's an educated guess." _Patsy had replied with her usual casual shrug.

"_You won't hurt them will you?" _That was the first time she'd ever questioned one of Solange's orders, Patsy's not entirely sure she believed her when she'd said _No._

_Hurt _and _harm _meant different things to Solange.

The knock on her door snaps Patsy back into life.

"Enter." She calls out from the bed.

The door opens, and the form of girl with a pillow case over her head is quickly pushed inside.

"_She_ was attempting to enter the building with this." The tallest of the Techno guards steps forward, the glint of metal flashing in his grasp.

On the bed he deposits a gun, the glow from the table-lamps catching across the engraving _MR A. E Munroe- Winner- 25m Pistol Competition 1998- Inverness._

Patsy doesn't know that much about guns, like cars, they pretty much all look the same to her.

"Leave us." She orders with a wave of her hand, watching as the guard stutters in his movements.

"I said get _out_!" Patsy hardens her tone, the guard almost trips over his heavy boots in a bid to escape the room in double quick time.

Patsy smirks, reaching out for the gun, she feels the unfamiliar weight in her hands. She raises the barrel up towards the girl, the front of the pillow case straining against her desperate breathes.

"You can take that off now, _Betty_." Patsy informs, returning the gun back to the space next to her.

The girl quickly pulls the hood from over her face, revealing a mass of long, thick auburn hair, and a pale, expressive face pickled with freckles.

With a flash of green the girl eagerly snatches up the weapon with shaking hands, it's Patsy turn to stare down that particular barrel.

She waits for a feeling, anything, but all she's met with his hollowness.

Patsy's not afraid to die, she longs for the time when she had been, when such a sight would have quickened her pulse.

_Nothing._

The longer the girl hesitates the less likely it is that she'll pull the trigger, real killers just kill, they don't talk, or wait. Patsy would have sprayed Betty's brains across the wall by now.

"Don't point that thing at me, _kid_." Patsy warns, excited at the chance of getting to say something so _cool_.

Betty takes a moment, weighing up her rapidly dwindling options, before shoving the gun back into the pocket of her leopard print faux fur coat.

"Pull up a chair, and we'll talk like adults." Patsy languidly relaxes backwards against her cushions, as Betty retrieves a high backed chair from the space behind the door.

Patsy's hotel suite isn't much to call home despite it's ample size, on en-suite facilities, she lives as if someone waiting to move house, with only the minimal comforts around her, no trinkets or keepsakes, not even a collection of skulls for comedic affect.

Stiffly Betty sits.

"I'm not sure, I've ever seen a gun before in this City." Patsy observes, her words directed at the girl's bulging pocket.

"It was my Grandfather's." Betty replies, her exotic sounding Scottish accent still as broad as the day she was auctioned at the slave market. There's been a gradually steady flow of Europeans flooding the City, as the pirates and slavers have begun to stray further North, plundering various isolated coastal towns.

Betty's former owner was a particularly nasty piece of work, who use to like to display his ownership by stubbing his cigarettes out on his girls skins.

"Why, all the cloak and dagger _stuff_?" Betty rests her elbows on the chair's black leather arm rests, her coat seeming suddenly to swallow her small body up.

"Variety is the spice of life, _Elizabeth_." Because she was bored, would have been a superior answer.

Betty scratches the tip of her nose.

"You want a drink?" Patsy gestures in the direction of her one luxury item, her neon pink mini fridge, humming away in the corner of the room.

The girl shakes her head sternly.

"Don't you watch the broadcasts, this is the bountiful land of plenty." Patsy's hollow laugh fills the room.

"_No_, funny thing that, I haven't had half as much time too watch TV, since a bunch of _Chosen _crazies trashed my business." Betty leans forward in her chair suddenly agitated, although she'd never admit it outside the confines of her own head, Patsy has a soft spot for the teenager in front of her.

"_Business," _She snorts. "...and there I was thinking it was just another _whore house."_

"A _whore house, _you Technos wouldn't do without!" Betty is of course right, The Technos do take a healthy percentage from all the businesses located in the City, the ones that are still standing at least.

Things are beginning to get so bad that even the casinos have started to relocated.

"That's why I'm prepared to cut a deal with you." Patsy lets one arm rest behind her head, and decides to play her hand, guessing that if Betty had the means to leave the City she would have already.

"You can have your pick of the Techno protected sectors to establish a new _business, _you just have to do one thing for me in return."

Something in the girl's gaze brightens, and lifts, and then dulls almost instantly.

"_What?"_

Patsy slips from the bed, turning her back on Betty she makes her way towards the large chest of drawers, the only other piece of furniture in the room excluding the double bed, and Betty's current seat.

She slides open the top drawer, her fingers finding the screen capture she'd scanned earlier from _Lex's _fantasy CD.

"Next time I see you, I want you to look like this." Patsy hands the image of _Zandra_ to the girl.

Betty screws her features up, as she studies the picture. "It's a bit _retro_ for me."

At that statement Patsy can't help but chortle. "I am _retro_."

The girl doesn't immediately disagree, and Patsy realises with a sudden, earth shaking clarity that's she probably the oldest person Betty has ever met.

"Why, should I?" The girl pouts, looking suddenly all of her sixteen years.

"If the incentive of getting your arse back out of the gutter isn't enough for you, let me put it like this. _Murder_ is a capital offence in this City, and even if you _did_ it to get your scum-bag _pimp_ off your back, rules are rules _I'm afraid_, and public executions are excellent rating boosters. And _heaven_ knows we could do with the boost."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What, the hell happened here?" Brady frowns, at the sight, which suddenly greets her, Estelle soaking wet in floods of tears, and the other five teenagers under her supervision missing.

"I was gone for _literally_ ten minutes!"

"Let's be fair, it was about twenty." Alex coughs behind her.

She grins back at him, and remembers that she's meant to be cross.

"_Split the difference, fifteen."_

Estelle trudges her way up the beach towards them, resembling every inch the drowned rat.

"I loath that _cow!" _She mutter ominously under her breath.

"Where is everyone?" Brady asks the sobbing wreck of a girl.

"They went swimming." Estelle splutters.

"_Great _alcohol, and night time swimming, what a perfect combination." Brady exclaims, having never coped well in stressful situations.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine, me and _Vi_ go swimming at night all the time." Alex tries to reassure her, pressing his weight onto her slender shoulders.

Brady just stares.

"Everyone except _him_." Estelle adds a moment later, pointing to the inert body of Theo.

Instantly Brady blanches.

"He _so_ better not be _dead_!" She warns nobody in particular, shrugging Alex's attentions off.

Estelle marches past them, the sound of her feet squelching in her shoes clearly audible.


End file.
